University of CbicaQO
Kiibravies
fcist XJr.ioTA Thool. Sam. Doll
ON
EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY,
.'&c.
TWENTY DISCOURSES
PREACHED BEFORE
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
IN THE YEAH 1820,
THE LECTURE
FOUNDED BY THE REV. JOHN HULSE, M.A.
BY C? BENSON, M.A,
SfASTER OP THE TEMPI.E AND PnEBENDAETf OP WORCESTEH.
FIFTH EDITION.
Eontrcn:
PRINTED FOR BALDWIN AND CRADOCK.
1830.
\\
'-v- til '(..- /
T. C. Hansard, Printefj
Palernoster-row.
03706
cU r
TO THE
RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL, K. G.
FIRST LORD OP THE TREASURY, 8lC. &C.
MY LORD ;
I venture to take this public
and early opportunity of acknowledging,
with great gratitude, the obligations which I
owe to your Lordship's unsolicited kind-
ness. I feel it an honourable distinction
to be ranked among the number of those
Clergymen whom, with a single view to
the welfare of Religion and the Estab-
lished Church, you have been pleased
so frequently to recommend to the Royal
Favour. Instances of such disinterested
Patronage are, however, no longer a matter
of surprise, though they never can cease
to be a subject of admiration and praise.
Your Lordship's life has, indeed, been
devoted to the public service ; and during
that life, the exertion of your power, and
the influence of your example, have been
A 2
IV DEDICATION
so continually directed, not only to the
political, but also to the moral and religious
welfare of the Nation, that they have
deservedly secured for your person and
administration, both the confidence and the
affections of the country both the voice
and the heart of the people.
My Lord, to promote what I believe to be
one of the first of your Lordship's wishes to
promote the practice and principles of the
Christian Religion in that Church to which
I have the privilege to belong, will, I trust,
be my constant endeavour. And that Pro-
vidence may continue your valuable life,
in health, and strength, and honour, for
the public benefit and your own individual
and increasing happiness, will ever be the
earnest prayer of
Your Lordship's
Most obliged, and
Very obedient, humble Servant,
C. BENSON.
Feb, 2%,. 1826,
PREFACE.
1 HE origin and reason of the present pub-
lication are so fully detailed in the first
and second Discourses, that I deem it un-
necessary to make any further extracts from
Mr. HULSE'S Will. In future years it may
be incumbent on the Lecturer to do so ; but
at present it is only requisite to state why
this is the first series of Discourses which
has ever been either preached or published
in pursuance of Mr. Hulse's bequests, al-
though he died so long ago as 1789. One
principal reason, among many others, I be-
lieve to have been this, that the proceeds
of his estates were not at an earlier period
sufficient to repay the Preacher for the ex-
pense of printing, much less to remunerate
him for the anxious labour of composing
twenty Discourses fit to be delivered before
VI PREFACE.
such an audience, and afterwards submitted
to the criticisms of the world. Even at
present the whole emoluments of the office
are nearly absorbed by the printer's bills,
and little is left to the Lecturer, but the
consciousness of labouring in an honourable
appointment, and, if not successfully, at least
in a good and holy cause.
The Volume now laid before the Public
may be divided into three parts.
1. The first two Discourses are merely
introductory, and were printed some time
ago, for the reasons specified in the Appen-
dix. They consist of a few preliminary re-
marks, and a slight sketch of the life and
bequests of Mr. Hulse (in the first) ; and of
a more lengthened detail and examination of
the duties of the Hulsean Lecturer or Christ-
ian Preacher (in the second Discourse).
2. The eleven following Discourses,
from the third to the thirteenth, inclusive,
P R E F A C E. Vll
are occupied with considerations upon the
Evidences of Christianity. This is the first
subject pointed out by Mr. Hulse to the
attention of the preacher, and neither " the
signs of the times/' nor the order of religious
inquiries seemed to admit of such a subject
being forgotten at the present moment. In
treating a question so often and ably investi-
gated, it has been my object to systematize,
what we may call the Evangelical Demon-
stration, and to arrange its parts so as to
give them their proper application, and their
greatest force. The works of most writers
either mistake, or do not point out at all,
what is the peculiar office of each branch of
evidence. Even the work of Paley (I men-
tion it because so much and deservedly
studied) establishes the credibility of the
Messengers, rather than estimates the suffi-
ciency of their testimony, and speaks only
in general terms of the argument from mira-
cles, the argument from prophecy, and that
from the internal frame and constitution of
the Gospel, without marking how far and to
Vlll PREFACE.
what portions of the whole truth of Christ-
ianity, each of these arguments may be more
directly applied.
Whether I have succeeded in supplying
the defect, I must leave with the reader to
determine, contenting myself with endea-
vouring to diminish for him the labour of
forming a judgment, by observing that
the connected chain of positive evidences
is contained in the third, fifth, seventh, and
concluding part (from p. 223) of the ninth
Discourse. In the passage last mentioned,
I have attempted to give a brief summary of
the mode of arguing, and of its application
and power. The remaining Discourses of
this second part of the series are employed
in meeting objections, and considering some
of the collateral arguments in favour of
Christianity .--To these, of course, those only
who feel or who feel a wish to know
the force of the Sceptic's reasonings for
infidelity, or suspense of faith, will turn.
To the heart, it is not in general a benefi-
PREFACE. IX
cial labour thus to contend in sophistry with
an adversary, whatever it may be to the
understanding. The feelings of charity are
never improved by struggling for, even when
you obtain, a mental victory.
3. The last seven Discourses are alto-
gether practical, yet not altogether without
method. I have endeavoured to lay down
the general mode of attaining salvation
(Disc, xiv.) ; the moral (Disc, xv.) and the
religious duties of a Christian (Disc. xvi.
xvii. xviii.); the means of the reconcilia-
tion of sinners to God, and the grounds of
their acceptableness with him (Disc, xix.);
and, lastly (Disc, xx.) the consequences of
our present actions, as they will influence
our future and eternal destiny. These Dis-
courses are not, in general, upon difficult
texts of Scripture, as Mr. Hulse seems to
require, but they are certainly upon such
as are " generally useful, and necessary to be
explained ;" and as they were delivered dur-
ing the vacation, when few who would
X PREFACE.
have relished the thorny discussion of a dis-
puted point, or doubtful meaning, were pre-
sent, I trust I shall stand excused. I add
further (speaking to those alone who heard
the series) that the Discourses are not
printed in the exact order in which they
were preached. In fact, the twelfth Dis-
course was the last delivered ; which I notice
to account for the valedictory nature of its
concluding paragraph.
C. BENSON.
MAGD. COLL. CAMB.
Dec. 20, 1820.
CONTENTS.
DISCOURSE I.
Pnov. chap. x. ver. 7.
The Memory of the Just is blessed.
PRELIMINARY remarks, p. 1. Events of Mr. Hulse's life,
p. 10. Mr. Hulse's bequests to the University of Cam-
bridge, p. 13. Hulsean Prize, p. 14. Christian Advo-
cate, p. 15. Hulsean Lecturer or Christian Preacher,
p. 17. Mr. Hulse's motives, p. 18.
DISCOURSE II.
HEBR. chap. ii. ver. 4.
And by it he, being dead, yet speaketh.
l)uties of the Hulsean Lecturer, p. 22. One provision
objected to, p. 40.
APPENDIX TO DISCOURSE II.
Additional Remarks upon the provision objected to, p. 4.
DISCOURSE HI.
MATT. chap. xi. ver. 2 5.
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of
Christ) he sent two of his disciples, saying, Art thou
he that should come, or do we look for another ?...*.. Jesus
CONTENTS..
answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again
those things which ye do hear and see : the blind receive
their sight) and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed, and
the deaf hear ; the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the Gospel preached to them.
The Credibility of the Evangelists, as mere human witnesses
and uninspired Historians of the words and works of Jesus
Christ, p. 49.
DISCOURSE IV.
2 TIM. chap. Hi. ver. 13.
Deceiving and being deceived.
The Credibility of Historical Testimony to Miraculous Facts,
p. 76.
DISCOURSE V.
JOHN, chap. v. ver. 39.
But I have a greater witness than that of John, for the
works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same
works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath
sent me.
The Words and Works of JESUS, as related by the Evan-
gelists, prove him to have been a DIVINE PROPHET, p. 99.
DISCOURSE VI.
2 TIM. chap. iii. ver. 16.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
The Credibility and Authority of the Sacred Writers, as
inspired Historians, Teachers, and Interpreters pointing
out the necessity and utility of such inspiration, the manner
in which its reality may be demonstrated, and the period at
which such a demonstration should be introduced, p. 123.
CONTENTS, Xlll
DISCOURSE VII.
ACTS, chap. xvii. ver. 3. (latter part.)
This Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
The Divine Prophet JESUS proved to be THE CHRIST, by
the fulfilment of the numerous and various predictions of
the Old Testament in his character and life, p. 148.
DISCOURSE VIII.
COLOSS. chap. i. ver. 23.
Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard.
Objections to the force of the preceding course of argument
considered, p. 172. Objections to the conclusion from
miracles: 1, from abstract reasoning, p. 173: 2, from
experience, p. 178. Objection to the conclusion from the
connected view of the miracles and the doctrines of Christ-
ianity, p. 18L Objections to the alleged accomplishment
of the ancient Jewish predictions in the life and character
of Jesus, p. 186.
DISCOURSE IX.
LUKE, chap. vii. ver. 22, 23.
Then Jesus answering, said unto them, Go your way, and
tell John what things ye have seen and heard, how that
the Hind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel is
preached, And blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me.
The system of evidence laid down in the preceding Dis-
courses shewn to correspond with that contained in the
answer of our Lord to John the Baptist, p. 205. Other
XIV CONTENTS.
recommendations of the system, in accounting for the past
and present Infidelity of the Jews, p. 211, in proving the
supposed testimony of Josephus to Jesus, as the Christ, to
be spurious, p. 217, and in pointing out the impropriety
and danger of partial or imperfect views of the Evidences
of Christianity, p. 220. Recapitulation, p. 223.
DISCOURSE X.
REV. chap. xix. ver. 10.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The nature, object, and force, of the argument in favour of
Christianity from the fulfilment of the predictions uttered
by Jesus himself, stated, p. 232 ; and the prophecy of
Jesus relative to the destruction and present state of Jeru-
salem, and the present universal dispersion of the Jews,
illustrated, p. 240,
DISCOURSE XI.
REV. chap. xix. ver. 10.
The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The subject of Discourse X. continued, p. 260 ; and the pro-
phecy of Jesus relative to the foundation of his Church
p. 262 ; its perpetuity, p. 269 ; the manner and mode of
its progress, p. 274; and the difficulties and opposition it
would meet with, illustrated, p. 279. The nature and
value of the testimony which the fulfilment of these pre-
dictions of Jesus affords to the truth of Christianity, esti-
mated and applied, p. 281.
DISCOURSE XII.
ACTS, chap. xix. ver. 20.
Mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.
Considerations upon the propagation of Christianity, when
regarded merely as an Historical Fact, p. 287. The pro-
CONTENTS. XV
gress of Christianity shewn to be a strong argument, under
the circumstances of the case, for its being a divine revela-
tion, p. 291. The progress of Christianity cannot be ac-
counted 'for from secondary causes, independent of the
miraculous powers of the first propagator, p. 303.
DISCOURSE XIII.
1 Con. chap. xii. ver. 3. (latter part.)
No man can say that Jesus is the Zord, but by the
Holy Ghost.
In what sense, and to what extent the co-operation of the
Holy Spirit is necessary to the attainment and perpetuity
of our Faith, p. 316.
DISCOURSE XIV.
PHILIP, chap. ii. ver. 12, 13.
Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it
is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
The Work of Salvation, p. 339.
DISCOURSE XV.
ISAIAH, chap. i. ver. 16, 17.
Cease to do evil, learn to do well.
The negative and positive duties of Morality, p. 356.
DISCOURSE XVI.
EXODUS, chap. xx. ver. 8.
Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy.
The Duties of the Sabbath, p. 372.
XVI CONTENTS.
DlSCOUKSE XVII.
LUKE, chap. ii. ver. 2.
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which
art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
The former part of the Lord's Prayer illustrated, p. 388.
DISCOURSE XVIII.
MATT, chap. vi. ver. 11 13.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil; for thine is the kingdom, and the
power and the glory, for ever. Amen.
The latter part of the Lord's Prayer illustrated, p. 404.
DISCOURSE XIX,
MATT. chap. xxii. ver. 11.
When the King came in to see the guests, he saw there a man
which had not on a wedding-garment.
The Parable of the Wedding-Supper, and the Wedding-
Garment, explained, p. 425.
DISCOURSE XX.
2 COB. chap. v. ver. 10.
We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that
every one may receive the things done in his body, according
to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad,
The probable circumstances, extensive inquiry, and final
sentence, of the Day of Judgment, detailed, p. 444,
HULSEAN LECTURES,
1820.
DISCOURSE I.
PROVERBS, chap x. ver. 7.
11 The memory of the Just is blessed*'
I AM a believer in God, and in Jesus Christ whom
he hath sent. This is the substance of my faith,
the rock of my consolation, and my only hope,
whether in time or eternity, for the attainment of
that peace and happiness, which must be the ulti-
mate desire of every being who has the power to
think, or the capacity to form a wish, upon the
subject of his own future destiny. That the kind-
ness of Providence has cast the lot of my inhe-
ritance in a Christian land; but more especially,
that it has granted me to draw the first breath of
life under the influence of the Gospel in her
purest form, and in a country where she invi-
B
2 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 1.
gorates the soul by the brightest beams of her
unclouded excellence ; I look upon it as a great
and unmerited blessing. I count it an equal
mercy that, in days when the idol of unbelief had
gathered round it the adoration of mankind, and
a vain and earthly philosophy alone had power to
scatter with unbounded profusion amongst her
votaries, the senseless honours of human praise,
there was yet piety enough in those to whom the
formation of my early principles and the instruction
of my maturer years were committed, to despise
the idle applauses of the creature's tongue, and to
refuse to burn the holy incense of their devotion
before the unhallowed image which the madness of
speculation had set up. It is necessary, indeed,
but it is, at the same time, a very difficult duty, to
glory in the shame of bowing before our Maker as
the Lord of the Universe, at a moment when he
is degraded or renounced by half the miserable
worms that he has made. Nor is it a more easy
task to cling with affection to our Redeemer in
those seasons of infidelity, when his children do
'' hide, as it were, their faces from him," and he
is become again, as of old, the " despised and re-
jected of men." I cannot, therefore, and I must
not cease to thank the God of these my fathers for
having preserved them pure in the midst of a
general corruption, and for having been myself,
through their instrumentality, so deeply imbued
Led. 1.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 3
with a conviction of the same comfortable truths,
that I have never yet quite failed in faith, even
under circumstances of the greatest danger ; but
at all times been enabled, either to triumph when
tempted, or to hope, believe, and rise again when
fallen. Yet, whilst I thus confess the extent of
that gratitude which I owe to the great Creator of
all things for the blessings and benefits that are
past, far be it from me, and from every one who
professes to submit his understanding to the doc-
trines of the Gospel, to forget the frailty of our
common nature. We cannot look into ourselves,
without trembling at the consciousness of infirmity.
We cannot contemplate the shifting scenes of the
world, without an awful perception of the snares
which are there so thickly sown to draw the souls
of men into perdition ; and we cannot search the
Scriptures, without remembering and musing upon
the baseless confidence of Peter. Feeling there-
fore what I am, and fearing what I may be, I
would turn my thoughts and my words up to the
throne of grace, and, in the meek humility of an
earnest prayer, beseech the Almighty Guardian of
Spirits to preserve us all in the untainted pro-
fession of those principles in which we have been
trained, to guide us by the light of the Gospel in
the dangers and difficulties of life, and finally to
grant that, after having reached, as others, the
respective terms of our appointed pilgrimage, we
B2
4 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 1.
may be enabled to taste the unspeakable mercy of
Christian consolations when we come to die.
I am a believer in God, and in Jesus Christ
whom he hath sent. I am more I am a Minister
of that Lord whom I adore, and a steward of those
mysteries in which alone there is a hope for the
salvation of a sinner's soul ; and under this cha-
racter I have become the subject of additional
labours and increasing difficulties.
The common obligations of morality bind it as
an indispensable duty upon the conscience of every
man, to endeavour to glorify God and benefit his
fellow-creatures by spreading, as far as it is in his
power, the knowledge and the practice of true
religion and holiness. To him, therefore, who
regards the Gospel as the word of truth and the
way of life, there must ever appear a necessity,
whether he be in or out of the church, for so or-
dering the steps of his progress through the world,
as to inspire the confidence of his own faith into
the breasts of those who are his companions on the
road. But to those who to these ordinary ties of
nature and of feeling have added the peculiar
obligations which resultfrom solemn and deliberate
choice ; to those who, under the influence of a
godly disposition, poured into their souls by the
Spirit of the Almighty, have freely undertaken the
Led. I,] HULSEAN LECTUUES, 1820. 5
office of becoming* ministers as well as subjects of
the kingdom of their Lord, and teachers as well
as disciples of his righteousness the double chain
which binds them to the service of subduing the
rebellious, and maintaining the allegiance of the
wavering Christian, is much too firmly riveted to
be broken with any hope of impunity. The priests
of the temple have sought out the dangerous pre-
eminence for themselves, and they must neither
yield to the temptations, nor shrink from the diffi-
culties, which its honour brings. To preach the
Gospel is a burthen which they have bound upon
their own shoulders, to bear it for life is a task
which they have assumed, and woe be unto them
if they preach not the Gospel, both daily and duly,
and in all their ways, and words, and works.
In describing this awful responsibility of the
sacred office, I am but delineating a picture of the
duties and the dangers which attach to my own
situation. I too have entered into the temple of
the Lord as a minister as well as a disciple, and
receiving into my hands the awful, yet affectionate,
charge of feeding the flock of Christ as a good
shepherd, have consecrated my life to the service
of my Redeemer at the altar, and given up my
years, my strength, and my understanding to the
holy vocation of becoming a spiritual guide to the
Weak, and a moral and religious guardian of the
6 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect.I.
wandering. I have entered into the field of God's
spiritual harvest as a labourer, and labour I hence-
forth must to the end of my days, and at the peril
of my soul. The vows I uttered were holy, and
cannot be broken ; are past, and beyond the power
of recal. The faith in which I have been nurtured,
therefore, I must teach it till I die ; else should I
here on earth be counted a burthen to society,
become a mark for the finger of unbelieving scorn
to point at, and grow into a stone of stumbling,
and a rock of offence for them that are ready to
perish out of the way. Such are the melancholy
consequences which flow from the idleness or evil
of a servant of God, in this world and to others ;
whilst for himself he is working out at the same
time, in the world to come, an eternal union with
that wretched company of apostate angels who
are described to us by Him whose word is truth,
as trembling whilst they believe, and weeping with
the wailings of despair at the consciousness of
their own everlasting exclusion from the presence
of God in glory.
If the general remarks in which I have
hitherto ventured to indulge be true, it is evident
that there is no choice left to the Ministers of God
in the primary and principal exercise of their in-
tellectual powers. The cause of the Christian Re-
ligion must be the business, as it is the interest, of
Lect. 1.] HITLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 7
every Christian teacher ; and never can he be re-
commended consistently with the hopes of heaven
and of salvation, to waste or to weaken his natural
abilities by devoting them to pursuits unconnected
with godliness. Yet as the ministry was ordained
for the benefit of the whole body of the church of
Christ, and as there is an abundant variety in the
circumstances and wants of the mass of mankind,
there may certainly be allowed to each individual
a corresponding degree of discretion in selecting
those particular religious objects towards which
he may be pleased or called to give his faculties
a more immediate and positive direction. Both
the Christian ministry and the Christian world
are composed of members having diversities of
gifts, and requiring therefore a difference in the
administration of those gifts. By the constitution
of his mind, by his place in society, by the nature
of his previous studies, by the sphere of his present
operation, in a word, by the innumerable leadings
and dispensations of Providence, every one may
be enabled to judge with sufficient clearness and
certainty for himself, of the opportunities with
which he has been blessed for the edification of
the Church ; and when once the manner in which
his talents may be most usefully exerted has been
found, it is his duty to obey the call with cheer-
fulness and diligence. The labours of a minister
may doubtless be equally pleasing to God and
8 HULSEATS LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 1.
equally profitable to man, whether his life be spent
in the education of youth, the instruction of a
congregation, the privacy of sacred literature, the
conversion of the heathen, or the public duties of
the pastoral care ; and should the liberty of a free
and independent choice be left to the dictates of
his own mind, a minister may, perhaps with equal
safety, select any one of these various modes of
spiritual usefulness, provided only that his energies
be faithfully employed and unremittingly exerted
in spreading the practice of piety, and enforcing
and illustrating those principles and doctrines
which, in the sincerity of his heart, he really con-
ceives to comprehend the essence of true religion.
But there are some situations in which all such
discretion with regard to the exercise of our
faculties is taken away. Every office which man
holds from the gift of his fellow-creatures, must be
considered as a call upon him from heaven for
good, and the nature of the duties which it re-
quires are, from the moment in which he enters
upon their discharge, and during the whole of the
time in which he may continue in their execution,
to form the rule and guide of his mental labours.
Inclination or interest must never be yielded to in
such instances, charm they never so wisely, if they
would withdraw us into a different path from that
which the finger of God has visibly pointed out to
us as the way of usefulness and everlasting life.
Lect. 1.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 9
Neither must we permit the timidity of our nature
to shrink back, through the fear of a failure or
the fascinations of ease, from the hardness of a task
which we have the capacity to bear. In the decay
and feebleness of advancing age, it may perhaps
be wise and holy for the soul to interpose an
interval of indolence between the confines of life
and death, a certain brief and melancholy pause in
activity for recollection and preparation for the
grave. But, in the vigorous maturity of manly
years, no one who hopes hereafter to be glorified
with angels, and received amongst the inhabitants
of the higher mansions of heaven, can safely
deviate into any other course of duties than those
which the finger of an over-ruling Providence has
opened to his view. Time and opportunity are
afforded to all in different proportions, and it is
only by labouring in time and profiting by oppor-
tunity that we can look forward with satisfaction to
the unchangeableness of eternity. In the solemn
consciousness of these reflections I now appear
before you. That holy and honourable office into
which those to whom the nomination was in-
trusted have been pleased, under Providence, to
call me, must henceforth, for a time at least, be-
come the end of my thoughts and the guide of my
exertions. To the duties of that office I must
bring a willing mind in the fulness of its strength,
and regulating my views by the directions of the
10 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 1.
pious Founder, stretch forth my faculties to the
utmost of my power in an humble, but earnest
endeavour to illustrate the evidences and elucidate
the difficulties of revealed religion.
As it has fallen to my lot to be the first to hold
the office of Christian Preacher, I may perhaps
stand excused if I should abstain for a little from
its peculiar topics, to indulge the feelings of gra-
titude, and pay a merited tribute of respect to the
Founder, by entering somewhat at length into the
circumstances of his life, the nature of his be-
quests, the subjects which he more particularly
proposes for our investigation, and the advantages
which may be conceived, and perhaps were con-
templated by him, as the result of his appoint-
ment.
Of the life of Mr. HULSE but little is known.
He was bora about the beginning of the eighteenth
century, and after having passed through the usual
course of academical studies as a member of the
venerable society of St. John's College, in this
University, proceeded to the degree of a Bachelor
of Arts in the year 1728. What might have been
his literary attainments, or his moral habits at that
period of his life, the remoteness of the time and
the failure of all written documents and human
testimony leave us altogether at a loss to deter*
lect. 1,] HUI'SEAN LECTURES, 1820. 11
mine. The strict and impartial system of exami-
nation which now so happily prevails amongst us,
and the regular arrangement of honours and classi-
fication of names which now ascertain, apportion
and transmit to posterity, the exact degree of merit
which is due to each individual for the industry and
ability he has displayed in the prosecution of his
youthful studies, were then unknown or unat-
tended to. At least we have to lament, that if any
method of appointing to each candidate for a first
degree his proper place in the scale of merit, was
so early in use, either the Examiners themselves
have forgotten to record, or their successors been
too careless to preserve the list. Under this ob-
scurity we can only, and we may surely be per-
mitted to, conjecture, that he who in his latter
years expressed so fervent a solicitude for the in-
terests of religion and virtue, must have been early
habituated to serious thoughts ; and that he who
so well remembered his Creator in the last act of
his life, could scarce have been unmindful of Him
even in the proudest days of his youth.
After having fulfilled the common and prepa-
ratory exercises of education, Mr. Hulse entered
into holy orders in the English church, and com-
menced the labours of ministerial functions, upon
a small curacy in the country, where it was his lot
" to spend many years of a life, which, as I think/'
18 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 1.
he observes,* " that no man did ever envy, so, I
bless God that no man could ever reproach."
Upon the death of his father, he appears to have
quitted this situation, and to have passed the re-
mainder of his days in singleness, in retirement,
and in piety, upon the land of his paternal inhe-
ritance in Cheshire, enjoying with moderation its
fruits, and distributing of its abundance in charity
to man. There was the usual place of his sojourn-
ing upon earth ; there did he endure, with sub-
missive meekness and resignation to the will of
heaven, " the most acute and extreme pain" of
a lingering disease, soothing himself, in the inter-
vals of suffering, with the charms of music ; and
there, in the year 1789, did he yield up his peace-
ful and patient spirit to the God who gave it, and
dropped into the grave in the age and reverence
of more than seventy years.
In the few and insignificant particulars which
I have here detailed, consists the whole of what
we have been able to gather concerning the cir-
cumstances of the Founder's life. We cannot but
regret the scantiness of the information they afford
concerning him, but let us at the same time console
ourselves with this reflection, that it is not material,
further than the satisfaction of a grateful curiosity
* See Mr. Hulse's Will, p. 40.
Lect. 1.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 13
might prompt the inquiry, to follow the steps of our
benefactor through all the changes and chances
of his transitory being. The claims of Mr. Hulse
upon our affectionate remembrance rest not so
much upon the deeds of his life, as of his death,
upon those wise and holy bequests in which we
may read the indelible traces of his piety towards
God, his love for the everlasting welfare of man-
kind, and his commendable interest for the prospe-
rity of that University which had been the mother
of his knowledge and the nurse of his faith. To
these bequests, therefore, I would now beg leave
to direct your momentary attention, whilst I
endeavour to lay before you the excellent and
unexceptionable ends they have in view, and the
pure and unmingled motives which would seem
to have prompted their original establishment.
The estates which Mr. Hulse has bequeathed
to the University of Cambridge are of considerable
value, and the whole of the revenue is directed to
one and the same object, the advancement and
reward of religious learning. This general stream
of benevolence is divided, however, into three
principal channels,* one of which is intended to
recompense the exertions of the Hulsean Prizeman ;
* There is also an endowment for two Hulsean Scholarships
in St, John's College, Cambridge.
14 HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. I.
another, those of the Christian Advocate ; and the
third, those of the Christian Preacher, or Hulsean
Lecturer, by whichever title it may be thought
proper to distinguish the character in which I now
appear before you.
With regard to the first of these institutions
which awards an annual prize of forty pounds to
the writer of the best Dissertation upon some
subject connected with the direct or collateral
evidences of the Christian Revelation ; we may
observe, that it ought principally to be considered
as a means of exciting the zeal, and directing the
studies of intelligent and younger men into a
course of theological and religious inquiries. It is,
in fact, strictly confined to those who are neither
of the degree nor of the standing of Masters of
Arts, and can be conferred but once upon the
same individual; thus plainly proving, that it was
intended by the Founder to stimulate the industry
of the slumbering, and draw forth latent talent in
defence of the Gospel. In this point of view it is
scarce possible to imagine an appointment more
useful in itself, or better calculated to raise up a
succession of able and godly men to fill the other
and more laborious situations for which Mr. Hulse
has provided, and to discharge their duties with
such fidelity and power, as may reflect honour
upon themselves, bring credit to their University,
Lect. I.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 15
and communicate to the world the inestimable
blessing of a sound instruction in righteousness.
The office of Christian Advocate is the second
institution of Mr. Hulse, and though it cannot be
more beneficial in its remoter consequences, it cer-
tainly may be regarded as more immediately useful
and positively important in checking the progress
and prevalence of Infidelity and Scepticism. The
duty of the Christian Advocate is, in the first place,
to obviate by annual or more frequent answers,
such popular objections as may be raised either
against natural or revealed religion, whether those
objections be new or old, original or revived. It
is in the second place, to be ready to satisfy, in a
private way, those real scruples and doubts which
may be felt by any fair and candid inquirer, who is
sorrowfully and perhaps hopelessly struggling, un-
aided and alone, against the darkness of ignorance
and the burthen of difficulties. In one word, the
Christian Advocate is to go forth and meet the
spirit of Infidelity in all the varied forms which it
may assume, to unmask the hideousness of its seem-
ing beauty to the eye of the unwary, and to calm
the bewildered mind, by showing it the unsub-
stantial nature of the phantom of doubt by which
it is disturbed. I can scarce conceive of any pos-
sible mode of exerting the talents of a man or of
a minister, which could be more actually useful and
16 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. ] t
satisfactory than this ; and if the office itself have
not hitherto produced so many publications, as the
number of years during which it has been estab-
lished would seem to promise, the deficiency must
be referred rather to the circumstances of the times
than to any other cause. Since the year 1803,
when the first appointment took place, until the
present time, but few novelties have appeared in
the unbelieving world. The awful issue of irre-
ligion and insubordination in the crimes and
horrors of the French Revolution, gave a practical
demonstration of the beneficial influence of Chris-
tianity which, for a moment at least, hushed every
murmur against its utility, and silenced every so-
phism against its truth. But as the remembrance
of those calamities and iniquities has gradually
died away, and the return of peace has restored
men to leisure for other thoughts than those of
securing their own immediate safety, the voice
of daring disbelief has again been heard in our
cities and our streets, and it is greatly to be
feared, that few of the years that are about to
come, will come unaccompanied with some sneer
/
against what we believe, or some blasphemy
against what we adore. Happy is he who has
been called to the task, and may possibly become
the providential instrument of enlightening the
unlearned and confirming the unstable in the prin-
ciples and practice of a saving faith !
Lect. I.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 17
The third and last appointment of Mr. Hulse, is
that of the Christian Preacher, and it forms indeed
an admirable completion of the whole scheme of
this excellent man for the benefit and promotion of
religious truth. The task of the Christian Preacher
is, as far as relates to the subject matter of his
labours, the same with that of the Christian Ad-
vocate, and the only difference lies in the method
he is to pursue in his religious lucubrations. As
the Advocate is to guard the frivolous and unwary
against the fallacy of prevalent and particular ob-
jections to the truth or holiness of religion ; so the
Preacher is to employ himself in a more general
statement of the evidences of revelation, and a
more copious and systematic elucidation of its
difficulties. The Advocate is to prop the falling or
recal the wandering Christian. The Preacher is
to build up the unestablished babe in Christ, in
the solidity of a reasonable faith ; and both toge-
ther are to bend their unremitting energies to the
same holy end, the glory of God and the salva-
tion of souls, by the propagation of the pure and
imdefiled religion of the gospel.
Such are the wise foundations of Mr. Hulse.
The first is intended to rouse the mind to reli-
gious pursuits, the two latter, to employ it, when
trained, in the actual labours of religious useful- ,
ness.
18 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 1.
I am now to proceed to the investigation of
those motives, by which the Founder may be con-
ceived to have been influenced in his conduct; and
upon these, I think, we shall have but little diffi-
culty in forming a favourable determination, if we
consider the aspect of the times in which he lived,
and the solemn and overflowing expressions of
godly zeal which adorn and sanctify the pages of
his last Will and Testament.
Mr. Hulse was born, as I observed, about the
beginning of the eighteenth century, and theformer
part of that century was disgraced by a more
copious list of unbelieving writers, than can be
furnished by any other equal portion of our history
as a nation. The names of Toland and of Tindal,
of Chubb and of Collins, of Morgan and of Shaftes-
bury, who all flourished within the period to
which I allude, are sufficient, without the recapitu-
lation of others, to redeem the accuracy of the asser-
tion I have made. It would not then be an unfair,
or anunnatural, supposition, to imagine, even in the
absence of all positive information as to the real
motives of the Founder, that, living as he did, in
an age when the spirit of Delusion had transformed
itself into an angel of Reason, his mind became so
deeply impressed with the danger of the Church,
as to resolve to devote the gifts of fortune to the
service of God,[and so endeavour to avert from his
Zee*. I.] HOLSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. 19
country the bitterness of spiritual death, We are
not, however, left entirely to the inferences of con-
jecture upon this subject; for the Founder himself
has explicitly and repeatedly alluded in his Will, in
terms of the most lively sorrow, to the prevailing
evil of the times upon which he had fallen, and has
expressed his hope that, in an age so unfortunately
" abandoned to vice, and devoted to shameful infi-
delity and luxury," his bequests might " prove a
means, through the divine grace, to induce others
to the like charitable, and, as he humbly hoped,
seasonable and useful benefactions." * Here then
it is, in the holy desire of guarding the ignorant
and indolent against the deceits of a false phi-
losophy, and the pleasing prospect of rousing
others to co-operate in the same work of benefi-
cence, that we are to look for the origin of these
religious establishments, and it is most certainly
a consolatory reflection, that the benefits bestowed
upon us were not suggested, like so many other
charitable benefactions, by the feelings of remorse,
of caprice, or of vanity. In the sight of man
for in the sight of God we may call no man right-
eous the Founder was a good and holy man,
nor can we frame to ourselves the suspicion of
any presumptuous and flagrant violation of laws,
human or divine, the consequences of which
* See Mr. Hulse's Will, p,"26 and 42.
c2
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect, 1.
he might have foolishly sought to obliterate by
a vain and posthumous act of beneficence. It
is also satisfactory to know, that the kindness by
which we profit was not accompanied by the loss
to a wife, a brother, or a child, of that inheritance
to which kindred and the laws had given them a
natural claim and a legitimate hope. The Foun-
der of our institutions died childless andbrotherless
and unmarried, and has also taken particular care
to vindicate his endowments from the charge of
injustice, by stating that he had disposed of his pro-
perty to charitable purposes, only " after a proper
provision being made by his Will for his several
relations, he having left no children, nor his rela-
tions having any." To relieve him, in the last
place, from the imputation of vanity in his holy
deeds, one anecdote has providentially escaped the
general forgetfulness of the other incidents of his
life, to convince us at once of the singleness of his
heart and the piety of his intention. It is related
of him by his favourite servant, who still lives, that
he was sometimes heard in the solitude of his cham-
ber and the silence of the night, pouring out his
soul in humble and fervent prayer to God, that he
would, of his abundant mercy, be pleased to bless
the disposition which he had made of his pro-
perty for religious ends, and cause it to prosper,
in the establishment of the belief and practice of
Christianity, to his own glory, and his people's
. 1.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 21
welfare. A similar and solemn prayer for a bene-
diction upon his charities is added at the conclu-
sion of his Will, in which he beseeches that " the
divine blessing may go along with all his bene-
factions, and that the greatest and best of Beings
may, by his all-wise providence and gracious in-
fluence, make the same effectual to his own glory
and the good of his creatures." If a man ever
speaks with sincerity, it is in the secret act of
solitary prayer, and in that last communication of
his thoughts which he lays before the world, and
I cannot conceive a proof more convincing of the
pure and holy views of this pious man, than what
is here afforded us by these two evidences of his
goodness.
What then remains for us ! What, but that
whilst we bless the memory of the just man, we
be careful also to follow the example of his holi-
ness, and, like him, both now and often, to lift up
our voices to the throne of God, and beseech him
that he, who alone can give wisdom to the simple,
and strengthen the hands of the feeble, would be
pleased so to bless the efforts even of the weakest
of his servants, in the fulfilment of an awful and
laborious office, as to make them, however un-
worthy in themselves, to become effectual, through
grace, to the conversion of sinners, and the sal-
vation of souls.
DISCOURSE II.
HEBREWS, chap. ii. ver, 4.
" And by it he, being dead, yet speaketk."
IN a former Discourse, I first of all, laid before
you the obligations of a minister of religion, as
they relate to the exercise of his intellectual
powers. I then referred to the very few incidents
which are remembered of Mr. Hulse's life, and
briefly touched upon the ends and motives of the
several benefactions he has bestowed upon the
"University of Cambridge. I would now enter
into a more particular examination of the duties
of the Christian Preacher, and the manner in
which they are required to be performed. The
materials of this inquiry must of course be solely
derived from that instrument by which the office
itself was established; I mean the last Will and
Testament of the Founder himself, by which " he,
being dead, yet speaketh" to us, of his intentions
in the bequest, and which, whatever may be its
difficulties in a legal point of view, is, as a moral
picture of the writer's mind, a very beautiful and
affecting document.
The will of Mr. Hulse opens in a strain of
Lect.%.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 23
fervent and unassembled piety, and refers in a
mingled tone of gratitude and resignation to the
mercies and miseries of a lengthened life. It
speaks the undisguised language of his heart,
as if he were already in the presence of his
Maker, and places his dependence for resurrection
and joy, where alone the solid and reasonable con-
fidence of a sinner can be placed, on the merits
and mediation of a blessed Redeemer. Thus he
begins :
" In the name of God, Amen. I, JOHN
HULSE, of El worth, in the county and diocese of
Chester, clerk, and once a member of the College
of Saint John the Evangelist, in Cambridge,
though at this time in a "3ry infirm state of
health, and for many years past afflicted with the
stone, and the most acute and extreme pain, yet of
sound mind, memory, and understanding (praised
be the great and gracious Author of my being for
this and for all his other undeserved mercies), on
a due consideration of the certainty of death, and
the uncertain time thereof, do make and publish
this my last Will and Testament, in manner and
form following. And first, I desire, with the
deepest reverence and submission, to resign my
soul into the hands of Almighty God, the greatest
and best of Beings, whenever his all-wise provi-
dence shall call for it, humbly relying (through
HULSEAU LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. $.
the gracious influence of his Holy Spirit) on the
merits, mediation, and satisfaction, of his blessed
Son Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and "Redeemer,
for the forgiveness of my sins, and a glorious im-
mortality : And my body I commend to the grave,
to be interred in such manner as I shall by a note
under my hand, in writing, direct, and for want
thereof, in a decent but private manner, at the
discretion of my executors. And as to such
worldly estate as it has pleased the divine good-
ness so graciously of late years to bless me with,
I do order and dispose of the same in the follow-
ing manner."
Having thus poured out and relieved the feel-
ings of his mind before God, he proceeds to devise
his estates to various persons and purposes;* but
that with which alone I am at present concerned,
is the part in which he speaks of the foundation
and labours of the Christian Preacher, which he
thus solemnly and seriously introduces to our
notice, as a plan which he had long and maturely
meditated :
" It was always," says he, " my humble and
earnest desire and intention, that the following
* It is not, perhaps, unworthy of remark, that Mr. Hulse
cancelled several legacies, because the individuals to whom they
were bequeathed had afterwards fallen into immoral habits,
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 25
donation and devise should be founded, as much as
possible, upon the plan of that profoundly learned
and successful inquirer into Nature, and most
religious adorer of Nature's God, I mean the truly
great and good (as well as honourable) Robert
Boyle, esquire, who has added so much lustre
and done equal service, both by his learning and
his, life, to his native country and human nature,
and to the cause of Christianity and truth."
No example more useful or excellent could
possibly have been selected by any one for his
imitation, than that of the sincere Christian and
sound philosopher whom Mr. Hulse has here
placed before our view ; nor could he have em-
ployed terms of more unpretending piety to mark
the heartfelt seriousness of his own intentions in
the same venerable cause.
" To the promoting," therefore, " in some
degree a design so worthy of every reasonable
creature," he proceeds to the appropriation of cer-
tain rents, for the appointment, under certain con-
ditions,* of a clergyman and graduate of the
University of Cambridge, to deliver and to print
twenty Sermons f every year, either upon the evi-
* Those conditions are, that he shall be a Master of Arts and
under forty years of age.
t Ten are to be delivered in April, May, and June. The
remaining ten, in September, October, and November.
26 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect.%.
dences of Christianity, or the difficulties of Holy
Scripture, or both. But, perhaps, it will be better,
first of all, to transcribe the Founder's own words,
and then add a few remarks upon the utility of
the plan they prescribe.
" To shew the evidence for revealed religion,
and to demonstrate, in the most convincing and
persuasive manner, the truth and excellence of
Christianity, so as to include, not only the pro-
phecies and miracles, general and particular, but
also any other proper or useful arguments, whe-
ther the same be direct or collateral proofs of the
Christian religion, which he may think fittest
to discourse upon,, either in general or particular,
especially the collateral arguments, or else any
particular article or branch thereof; and chiefly
against notorious infidels, whether atheists or
deists, not descending to any particular sects or
controversies, so much to be lamented amongst
Christians themselves, except some new or danger-
ous error, either of superstition or enthusiasm, as
of Popery or Methodism, shall arise ; in which case,
" only, it may be necessary, for that time, to write and
preach against the same." Such are the liberal
and comprehensive terms in which the Founder
has described one portion of the duties of the
Christian Preacher. "With regard to the other, he
is equally judicious, and directs, that he " shall
Lect.%.] HULSEAN LECT0EE3, 1820. 7
take for his subject, some of the most difficult
texts or obscure parts of Holy Scripture, such,
I mean, as may appear to be more generally
useful or necessary to be explained, and which
may best admit of such a comment or explana-
tion, without presuming to pry too far into the
profound secrets or awful mysteries of the
Almighty.
The first observation which we are unavoidably
led to make upon this sketch is an expression of
approbation, at the free and extended range of
inquiry which it leaves to the Preacher's choice.
It does not confine his labours to any one par-
ticular branch of theology, but leaves the whole
science open to his investigation, and thus gives
full scope for the exertion of every individual's
understanding, upon that subject with which he
is best acquainted, or which he may find it most
congenial to his feelings to pursue. To convince
men of the truth of their religion, is the primary
end of all our endeavours. A second and not less
important object is, to instruct them clearly and
thoroughly in its nature and obligations. Both
these ends are here amply provided for; the
former, by directing our attention to a statement
of the proofs of Revelation; the latter, by requiring
an illustration of its obscurer parts ; and, together,
they comprehend almost all which, in a theologi-
28 HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. [Led. S.
cal point of view, it is necessary for any private
Christian to be informed of.
To the extensive sphere which is thus laid
open for the researches of the Christian Preacher,
we may add the prudent manner in which his duty
is required to be performed. There are, in many
of those works which have been written for the
conviction of heretics and infidels, too frequently
to be found a tone of triumphant sarcasm and the
bitter levity of satirical reproof. Even the wit
and wisdom of the provincial letters of Pascal are,
from this cause, not altogether worthy of the un-
mingled admiration of a devout Christian;* and
* The use of ironical language and railing upon serious subjects
was objected to Pascal, by his enemies, even in his own day, and
the eleventh Lecture is devoted to a defence of his conduct upon
this point ; a defence more objectionable even than the fault
which was attributed to him; inasmuch as it vindicates his method
of controversy, by a very irreverent attempt to prove that irony
and raillery have been adopted by the Deity and the Redeemer
of the world. Yet strongly as I feel the justice of my remarks
upon the style of Pascal, I should scarce have ventured to state
-an opinion, so contrary to the general prejudice in his favour, had
I not been able to add the impartial and decided expressions
of Schlegel in corroboration of my sentiments.
* The provincial letters of Pascal, have, in consequence of the
wit and beauty of their language, become standard works in
French literature, but if we would characterize them by their
import and spirit, they form nothing more than a master-piece
of sophistry ,.,,,. Every one must admit that the author, a
Lect. ] HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. 29
when we recollect that it was the custom'of Gibbon
to gather fresh strength for the warfare of subtilty
and sarcasm against Christian truth, by an an-
nual perusal of these very letters,* we may perhaps
begin to doubt whether ridicule, severity and re-
proach, be legitimate weapons in a meek and de-
fensive Christian. I am far, however, from think-
ing that triumph is not justified by the excellence
of the cause we have to defend, or from asserting
that the misrepresentations and unfair sophistry
of our adversaries, have not, on some occasions,
been wilful and worthy of strong censure. But
I would seriously recommend those whose only
object, if they be sincere in their belief, ought to
be the conversion of the unbeliever, to consider
whether it is not at all times most consistent with
the spirit and precepts of Christian charity, to
presume (for who, but God, can know the hearts
of men?) that our opponents are as sincere as our-
selves. Still more earnestly would I beseech them
to reflect, whether it must not have a greater
as he was, employed his genius in a very culpable manner, when
he set the example of writing concerning religion, in a tone of
apparent levity and bitter sarcasm." Schlegel on Literature,
vol. II. p. 188, 189.
* " I cannot forbear to mention three particular books, since
they may have remotely contributed to form the Historian of the
Roman Empire. 1. From the provincial letters of Pascal, which
almost every year I have perused with new pleasure, I learned
to manage the weapon of grave and temperate irony, even on
subjects of ecclesiastical solemnity." Gibbon's Memoirs of his
own Life, p. 67. 4to. ed. of his Miscell. Works, vol. I.
30 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 2.
tendency to promote the outward prevalence and
inward influence of the Gospel, to strive to gain
souls to Christ, by a forcible representation of our
own views of the evidences of his divinity and truth,
set forth in the winning words of meekness, than
by the most irrefragable demonstration of deistical
errors, accompanied by the sharp and bitter re-
proaches of the pen. At least we may assume,
that whoever ventures in the discharge of the
duties which attach to the office of Christian
Preacher, to introduce the violence of forbidden
passions, and the use of ungentle language, will not
only act inconsistently with the name he bears,
but also transgress the positive rule which the
wisdom of the Founder has laid down for his obser-
vance ; the rule, I mean, of demonstrating in the
most convincing and persuasive manner, the truth
and excellence of Christianity. For he who ren-
ders railing for railing, may reason indeed or re-
buke men into sullen silence ; but never will he be
able by his bitterness to " persuade" them into an
acknowledgment of the truth of what he defends,
or by wrath to " convince" them of the excellence
of the Gospel ; whilst proving to demonstration,
by his own conduct, how little is the efficacy which
its precepts and principles have obtained over his
own heart.
Mr. Hulse has thought it necessary to impose
only two restrictions in the choice of subjects upon
Ltct. 2.] HULSEAN LECTUAES, 1820. 81
those who may be appointed under the direction
of his Will, and both these restrictions appear to
have been dictated by the purest and soundest
feelings and views. One of them relates to the
evidences, the other to the difficulties, of Revelation.
With regard to the evidences of Revelation, he
distinctly prescribes that the Christian Preacher
shall direct his efforts principally against those
" notorious infidels, whether atheists or deists,"
who are the enemies of the common faith, and never
descend (to use his own words) to any of those
" particular sects and controversies, which are so
much to be lamented amongst Christians them-
selves, except some new or dangerous error, either
of superstition or enthusiasm," should prevail. In
this latter case alone does he permit the multiplied
differences and disputes of Christian divines to be
nourished and perpetuated by attaining to the dig-
nity of an authorised and public refutation. It
would have been well for religion had this rule
been more generally observed. Without alluding
to any existing controversies, I think it may be
fairly admitted, that many of those which eccle-
siastical History presents to our view, as disturb-
ing the beauty of the Church of Christ, were idle
and unimportant in themselves. Yet were they
often, in their day, as warmly debated as the most
vital doctrines, or precepts of religion, and were
HtfLSEAfl LECTURES, 1820, [Lect* 2.
accompanied by as much hatred, and variance,
and emulation, and strife, as could have been sup-
posed to arise from the passions of men, when
interested in questions essential to the virtue or
salvation of the world. That the faculties of the
human mind were exercised and improved in these
wars of reason may certainly be true, and I am
not disposed to deny that some pearls may be de-
tected amidst the filth and rubbish with which the
Scholastics defended themselves or assailed their
adversaries. We cannot, however, deny, that their
talents might have been much more beneficially
employed, in illustrating the simple doctrines of
the Gospel, or enforcing its appropriate precepts.
It may and indeed it must sometimes be necessary
to resist the progress of error and correct the
perverse disputers of this world by argument ;
but we should never needlessly descend into
the arena of controversy, never forget the temper
and prudence which the Christian contest requires,
or make use of weapons disproportionate to the
magnitude of the warfare. Every man is apt, either
from a desire of stimulating his own energies, or
from the effect of long contemplation upon one
subject, to magnify the importance of that point of
polemical Divinity upon which he is engaged, be-
yond its real merits, and to attribute such evil con-
sequences to the opinions of his opponent, as that
opponent himself would absolutely shudder at,
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 33
and an impartial examiner would never have per-
ceived. The Deist has not forgotten to take advan-
tage of this weakness. He has judged the Gospel
out of the mouth of the polemic, and, collecting to-
gether into one mass the numerous disputes of
Christian Churches or writers, and estimating their
importance by the lofty terms in which the dis-
putants themselves have spoken of their different
sentiments, has very artfully inferred that, since
the religion of Jesus has left, even in the confession
of its friends, so many and such essential doctrines
in a state of absolute uncertainty, there cannot be
much satisfaction in embracing it as a rule of faith,
or a ground of hope for the happiness of a future
state. In the very same manner the Papist reviles
the purer form of the Protestant system of belief,
and deduces, from the variation of Protestant
creeds, the necessity of an infallible guide upon the
earth. That the inferences of both these sorts of
reasoners are invalid, is allowed ; but where men
permit the liberty of thinking, and expressing their
thoughts, to degenerate into licentiousness, they
must needs expect that the Infidel will turn it to his
own account, and that the unconfirmed and waver-
ing Christian will be misled by his specious con-
clusions, into a rejection or doubt of the credibility
of the Gospel scheme of salvation. No course,
therefore, would appear to be more useful or pru-
dent than that which Mr. Hulse has so earnestly
34 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 2.
recommended, of giving our principal diligence
to guard the rock upon which the Christian city
is built, from the open or concealed attacks of its
acknowledged adversaries, and never too rudely
to assail its sincere well-wishers, even though
we may conceive them to be mistaken in their
notions, unless their errors should be new, or
dangerous and prevalent. If new and prevalent,
it may be wise to check and correct them, before
they become inveterate by long establishment. If
dangerous and prevalent, the duty of resistance is
too plain to require a single word of exhortation.
But if they be neither prevalent nor dangerous,
it would be manifestly imprudent to give them,
whether new or old, that additional degree of
importance and notoriety, which necessarily at-
taches to every thing which has been made the
subject of public and systematic disquisitions.
The very best method of opposing many of the
minor wanderings of the human intellect is, to
leave them to fall by the weight of their own
absurdity, or else gradually to die away and be
forgotten because neglected.
In selecting for the subject of his inquiry
" some of the more difficult texts or obscure parts
of the Holy Scripture," Mr. Hulse directs the
Christian Preacher to understand him, as alluding
chiefly, if not exclusively, to such as he may deem
Lect, .] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, 35
" more generally useful, or necessary to be ex-
plained, and which may best admit of such a com-
ment or explanation, without presuming to pry too
far into the profound secrets and awful mysteries
of the Almighty." This limitation is the result of
wisdom and humility. There are things, we
know, which the angels themselves, not perfectly
understanding in all their parts and bearings,
desire to look into ; and I can scarce imagine that
such a desire, which is said to inhabit the bosoms
of celestial beings, can be in itself sinful ; because
no censure is passed upon it, or even implied, in
the words of the Apostle. To muse, indeed, upon
the wonderful works of the Almighty, whether in
nature or in grace, is one of the noblest employ-
ments of the human imagination ; and to stretch
out our faculties to the utmost, to discover the
reasons and modes of the divine operations, till,
wearied with conjecture, we sink back to earthly
things, and confess our utter inability to compre-
hend the height, and breadth, and depth of the
Almighty Mind, may be made one of the best of
schools, in which to learn the lesson of intellec-
tual humility. But this is not " to presume to pry
into the profound secrets and awful mysteries of
the Almighty." It is rather to adore and profit
by them. To pry into heavenly things is, when
a man would measure the wisdom of the Deity by
his own, and vainly attempt .to assign the causes
D2
86 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Zed. 8.
and course of all those actions and dispensations of
God, which have a reference to the whole sphere
of creation, and comprehend the interests of end-
less worlds and beings, of whose nature and desti-
nation we have no knowledge whatever. Even in,
judging of a fellow creature's proceedings, we must
often perceive how inadequate our powers are, to
estimate the motives and ends for which he acts ;
and even in the more complicated systems of human
invention, we are sometimes compelled to confess
our ignorance of the mechanism by which a cu-
rious or useful result is produced. Surely it much
more becomes us to be cautious in tracing the
processes of the Creator's thoughts, which are not
as our thoughts, and to be content to be baffled
in our researches into the propriety of the means
which he has employed to effect the most glorious
and blessed work of our own redemption. Man
may conceal the secret of his knowledge from his
fellow man, either to retain the distinction of su-
periority, or to secure the reward of his successful
industry. But God keeps his creatures in igno-
rance, not for his own benefit, but for theirs ; not
to hold them in a state of degrading inferiority,
but to reward them for their submission to his
inscrutable will. It is the dictate of humility,
therefore, to abstain from presumptuous inquiries
into mysteries. It is the part of wisdom also; for
no great degree of useful knowledge can ever be
Ltct> &,] HUI.SEAN LECTURES, 1820. 37
looked for from such discussions. The vain pur-
suits of Alchemy were certainly the parents of some
few useful discoveries; -but the progress of science
has been much more rapid, and it has imparted
information of a far more solid and important
nature, since the labours of its disciples were
directed to legitimate and attainable ends. It will
be the same too, and in a much higher degree, in
the pursuits of Theology. For, even were we to
lay aside out of our consideration all reasoning
from the usual course of God's providence in other
things, we could never, in consistency with gospel
principles, expect the blessing of the Holy Spirit
to guard us from error, or lead us into truth, whilst
presumptuously endeavouring to scan the deep
and hidden things which God has put within his
own power. A similar remark may also be made
upon that other restriction which we have already
considered. If we refuse to follow the steps of
our blessed Saviour, and choose, when reviled,
instead of being meekly silent, to revile again, how
can we hope that God will give efficacy to those
words of bitterness which are so contrary both
to the spirit and commandments of his will?
Exclusive, therefore, of the natural tendency which
intemperance in language has to irritate the mind,
there seems to have been a positive bar placed to
its success, by the express revelations of God's
providence. We have no promise whatever that
38 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. {Ltd. 2.
the grace of the Holy Ghost, which alone can
touch the conscience, will empower those who
bring " a railing accusation" against any man, to
melt the stony hardness of an unbelieving heart.
Neither can we entertain any reasonable expect-
ation, that the wanderers from the fold of Christ
will ever be allured to their home again, by the
voice of him who would call them back to the
deserted flock, rather by the rudeness of wrath,
than the accents of kindness.
The end of the commandment is charity. The
end of all inquiry and discussion upon the prin-
ciples of faith should be, the practice of the precepts
of pure and undefiled religion. Now it is of the
nature of the reasoning processes of the mind, to
turn away our thoughts from the application, and
to fix them only upon the establishment of truth.
Thus we may often speak to the head without
moving the heart ; or, on the other hand, we may
frame the most earnest appeals to the affections ;
but if we have not previously laid a solid foundation
in the knowledge of the rudiments of Christian
instruction, our exertions will terminate only in
a few faint and transitory emotions of godliness.
But if, after having first sown the seeds of right-
eousness in a clear establishment of the truth of
Christianity, and a pure elucidation of its saving
doctrines, we then pour over our labours the re?
Lect. 2.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 39
freshing waters of holy reproof, correction, and
exhortation, we may look forward, with a lively
confidence, to beholding the fruits of righteous-
ness grow up under our eye. It were impossible,
therefore, that Mr. Hulse could better have con-
cluded his statement of the duties of the Christian
Preacher, than by enjoining that " in all the said
twenty Sermons, such practical observations shall
be made, and such useful conclusions added, as
may best instruct and edify mankind." It is not
necessary that, in obedience to this injunction, we
should formally subjoin to every Discourse, a re-
gular list of those moral inferences, which may be
successively deduced from the substance of our
argument. It is only necessary that we should
avoid such a dry and didactic treatment of the
evidences and difficulties of Revelation, as can
have no effectual influence over the affections. It
is absolutely necessary that we should pour out
the fulness of the heart, as well as of the under-
standing, upon these sacred subjects, and endea-
vour to prepare an easier and a readier way for
the reception of truth, and the conversion of the
inward man, by aiding reason with the unction of
godliness.
I feel considerable hesitation in mentioning the
last observationl have to offer, as it implies a doubt
at least of the wisdom of the provision to which it
40 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. %.
refers, and is one in which, as holding the situation
of Christian Preacher, I am myself individually
interested . Mr. Hulse has ordered that the whole
of the twenty Sermons which are preached, shall,
every year, be printed. The subjects which they
embrace can never, perhaps, be too much investi-
gated. The evidences of Revelation can scarce be
too frequently repeated, or endeavours to illustrate
its difficulties too extensively multiplied. There is
such a variety of minds in the world, that some-
thing useful, if not original, or something suited
to some particular individual's feelings, may be ex-
pected from every different writer's views. The
fluctuations in taste and language are also con-
stantly rendering it requisite to remodel old argu-
ments, whilst the progress of science, or changes
in its terms, render it equally necessary to invent
new arguments to meet unforeseen objections.
For scepticism, taking advantage of every casual
and successive circumstance, is ever varying the
nature and mode of its attack. Still, however,
there are limits to the multiplied forms of infi-
delity, and it would be too much to assert, or
expect, that every year should produce something
so new or dangerous, as to justify so large an
annual publication upon the same topics. The
attention of the public must, therefore, necessarily
become wearied by such a constant repetition, if
the provision be complied with, and the energy of
Lect* 2,] HULSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. 41
the writers themselves languish, under the entire
hopelessness of being able to give additional in-
terest to what has been so often and forcibly urged
before. There is another inconvenience which
may likewise sometimes attend this regulation
The Lectureship is permitted to be held, at the
option of the trustees, for five or six years in suc-
cession by the same individual. Should that ever
be the case, and should the Preacher be compelled
to annual publication, he might thus be forced to
give to the world the disjointed portions of a sys-
tem, whose value and validity depended principally
upon being considered in connexion as a whole.
There would be much evil in this, not only to the
credit of the Author and the University, but, what
is of infinitely more consequence, to the cause of
religion itself. I would, therefore, with great sub-
mission suggest, whether it might not be advise-
able to adopt some method for altering, or limiting,
or annihilating this provision altogether. There
are, perhaps, Authorities in the kingdom, if not in
the University itself, whose powers render the
execution of the measure practicable, and there is
no reason whatever to fear, that religion or science
would suffer by the change. No one can justly
complain of the fewness, though some have raised
their voices against the rapid multiplication of
books upon theological subjects. There will al-
ways remain such a sufficient number of motives
to write and to publish, as will take away every
4$ HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect. 2.
apprehension of our being deprived of any works
of real importance, even though every future
Christian Preacher were left to the dictates of his
own inclination. Were I to say more upon this
point, I should be trespassing upon the province
of those within whose sphere the consideration of
the subject more immediately falls; but I could
not, with the opinions I entertain, pass it alto-
gether without notice.*
I must now draw these lengthened remarks to
a close, and I do so, first, by congratulating the
University upon the new sphere of usefulness
which is opened to its members. Works of great
value may not be very often added, by the Chris-
tian Preacher, to the already accumulated stock of
theological productions ; but the office will always
hold forth to men in the vigour of life, a motive
and a field for the exertion of talents, which might
otherwise have perished for want of exercise, or
been wasted in pursuits frivolous and desultory.
The preliminary discipline of mathematical studies,
which forms the leading feature in our general
system, is calculated, above every other exercise
of the mind, to train it to habits of close thinking,
and clear and accurate reasoning. It may, how-
ever, be carried to excess, or cultivated to the
exclusion of more essential, because sacred, ac-
* See the Appendix*
Lect. &] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 43
quirements ; and it does sometimes happen, that
those who have been honoured with a high rank
in the degrees of scientific merit, do not afterwards
make a progress in other branches of learning,
proportionate to their early and academical pro-
mise. Perhaps in general this failure may be
attributed rather to a want of exertion, than of
power; whilst that want of exertion itself may
be traced to the difficulty of selection amidst so
many various subjects of inquiry, and the absence
of every stimulus at all equal to that by which the
student was first influenced the prospect of
youthful distinction awarded, without partiality,
amongst a number of equal competitors. The
world is not half so fair a theatre. There it is
often favour, often ignorance, that assigns the
palm to an individual, under circumstances where
it is almost impossible to frame a scale of com-
parative merit. Here, in the University and in
the struggle for the honours of a first degree,
equals contend, knowledge tries the cause, and
justice and experience apportion the reward. In
after-life, it never will be so. Let me therefore
beseech the young to prize and to strive for these
honourable distinctions. If they lose it now, the
opportunity can never be with them again.
I conclude, secondly, by congratulating those
who may hereafter hold the situation of Christian
Preacher, upon the peaceful and useful labours of
44 HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. [ZecJ.2.
holiness which are prepared for their reception.
It is, not to be misled or confounded in their
understandings, by the subtleties of a false phi-
losophy It is, not to be irritated in temper, and
have the feelings of charity quenched, under the
corrupting influence of controversial bitterness ;
But it is, to strengthen their own and others faith,
by setting forth, in their brightness, the solid
evidences of Christian truth It is, to be taught,
and to teach, the excellency of God's wisdom,
" even the hidden wisdom which was ordained
before the world unto our glory." It is, to follow
the example of Paul, and to know and to preach
" Jesus Christ and him crucified," that they will
be called. The heart that cannot be warmed into
rapture by the prospect of employing its faculties
in such a cause, is even dead, while it liveth. Yet
would we beware of boasting. " The natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God,"
because they "are spiritually discerned," discerned
through the influence of the Spirit operating upon
our understandings for good. Whilst we rejoice,
therefore, in the enthusiasm of present love and
wonder, for the grace and glories of redemption,
let us ever remember to depend solely upon the
continuance of the aid of the Spirit, that the faith
which we build up, in others or ourselves, may
not stand " in the words of man" a weak and
a sandy foundation "but in the power of God,"
a rock everlasting and unmoveable,
APPENDIX.
INFLUENCED by a desire of directing the attention of those who
are officially or personally interested in Mr. Hulse's Will, to a
consideration of the provisions in which he requires the printing
of the whole of the Sermons delivered annually by the Christian
Preacher or Lecturer, I have taken the liberty of inserting in
this Appendix a few additional remarks upon that subject. My
only anxiety was, and still is, that it should be carefully exa-
mined and decided, whether some alteration, either in their
form or extent, may not be judicious and possible : and what
the nature of that alteration ought properly to be, in order to
preserve, if not increase, the advantages of the office, in a reli-
gious and literary point of view.
There appear to be three different methods of modifying the
provisions of Mr. Hulse. First, it may be done by absolutely
reducing the number of Sermons, to be both preached and printed,
from twenty down to twelve or ten ; in which case the Lecturer
would be able to devote a greater portion of his time and atten-
tion to their composition, and by labour in writing and conden-
sation of thought, be enabled to render his ideas at once more
clear and forcible. A second method which suggests itself, is
that of leaving the number of Sermons to be preached unaltered,
and making the change only in the provision which relates to
printing; which change may be effected either by stipulating
some number less than twenty, which shall always be committed
to the press, or by leaving the matter entirely at the option of the
Trustees, or of the Lecturer himself. The third method, is that
of both reducing the number to be preached, and removing the
necessity of printing altogether. But in this there would be so
great and manifest a violation of the Founder's intentions, that
no one, I apprehend, would venture to recommend it as either
judicious or just.
Which of the three preceding changes should be adopted, I
46 APPENDIX.
presume not to decide, but I would venture to offer a few sug-
gestions upon two schemes, in both of which the labours of the
Lecturer would remain undiminished, whilst the usefulness of the
situation would probably be increased.
Mr. Hulse has pointed out the months of April and May and
the two first weeks in June for the delivery of the ten Sermons
which are to be preached in Spring ; and as the University con-
tinues filled, both by Undergraduates and others, during the
whole of that time, no period would seem to be better suited for
the purpose. But the case is very different with the Autumnal
course. For the ten Sermons to be delivered in the Autumn,
the months of September and October are appointed, during
almost the whole of which months the University is, compara-
tively speaking, deserted, and the ordinary inhabitants of the
parish of St. Mary, form the principal part of the Congregation
in the University Church. At such a time, therefore, the more
erudite labours of the Hulsean Lecturer would seem to be much
out of their place. Under such circumstances it would surely
be no improper step to alter the time, at least, for the delivery
of these latter Sermons; and to transfer them to some other
period. Now, it so happens that, under the present arrange-
ments, the Morning Sermons at St. Mary's are by no means so
fully attended as those in the Afternoon : probably because the
Select Preachers are appointed only to take the Evening Dis-
courses, and the supply of the Morning Preachers, being left to
individual choice or chance, has gradually generated a degree
of inattention and neglect, which cannot but be very seriously
lamented. It may seem, therefore, to deserve attention, whether
by making the Hulsean Lecturer responsible for ten of the
Morning Sermons during the continuance of the Terms, and
. whilst the University is full, we should not have a prospect of
restoring that regularity in attendance, which cannot but be
considered as desirable, both for the character of the University
itself, and the spiritual edification of its members.
Another plan, and one which, if I might be permitted to ex-
press my private sentiments, I should prefer, is this ; to change
one half, at least, of the Sermons to be delivered by the Hulsean
Preacher, into Theological Lectures. The Founder has given
APPENDIX. 47
to his Preacher the option of delivering his Discourses either on
the Friday Mornings, or the Sunday Afternoons ; thus plainly,
I think, declaring, that he thought they might often assume
the form of Lectures in Divinity, rather than of Discourses
upon practical religion, and consequently be but little suited for
the spiritual improvement of those who attend the worship of
God upon the Sabbath-day. To make a partial change from
Sermons into Lectures, would not, therefore, appear to be any
great deviation from the Founder's intentions. Now the Nor-
risian Professor of Divinity delivers his Lectures only during two
of the annual Terms at Cambridge. The third, the Midsummer
Term, is at present destitute of such Lectures. Would it, there-
fore, be injudicious to permit the Hulsean Lecturer to combine
the whole of his labours into that Term, and whilst he is preach-
ing eight or ten of his Discourses from the pulpit on Sunday, to
deliver the remaining ten or twelve to the Students in Divinity
on the other days of the week ? I merely allude to these proposi-
tions as perhaps not inexpedient.
But the great question still remains to be considered, and that
is, whether there be any possibility of making any alteration, how-
ever necessary and just, and where the power of making that
alteration rests.
It will be found, by a reference to Mr. Hulse's Will,* that,
in case the persons appointed to fill the offices instituted by him
do not discharge the duties he has specified, their respective sala-
ries are to be divided in equal shares amongst the six Senior
Fellows of St. John's College, in Cambridge, ft further appears,t
that the Bishop of Ely, as Visitor, has authority " to see that the
benefactions and endowments of Mr. Hulse be all of them applied
to the uses intended, in a just and proper manner; and in case
of any perversion or misapplication in all or any of them, to rectify
the same in a summary way, with reason and equity? Hence it
would seem, that if the Visitor and the Trustees and the Six
Senior Fellows of St. John's College, could reconcile it to their
consciences to permit any deviation whatever from the strictest
letter of the Founder's Will, by waving the exercise of their
Page 23, f Mr. Hulse's Will, p. 23.
48 APPENDIX.
authority, and the assertion of their claims, they might certainly
do so in any. instance in which they apprehended that, from the
"beneficial nature of the change, the endowments of Mr. Hulse
would still be applied, in a just and proper manner, to the uses
intended j which uses he frequently declares substantially to have
been, the diminution of infidelity, and the promotion and increase
of religious learning. The interpretation I have here given of
the Founder's words, may not, perhaps, be that which is literally
and legally correct ; but it is undoubtedly most perfectly con-
sistent with his ultimate views and wishes ; and it remains, there-
fore, with those who have the power to act upon this occasion, to
consider with themselves, whether they would be justified in
allowing of any alteration at all, or whether, in particular, they
would adopt any one of those several alterations which have been
already proposed. With them it rests to examine, whether the
religious and literary advantages to the world, to the University,
and to individuals, may not become greater by a general confor-
mity to the principles of Mr. Hulse's bequests, than a rigorous and
undeviating adherence to the very letter of a Will, which, in many
instances, it would be inconvenient, and in some almost impos-
sible, to follow.
I shall only conclude by expressing my hopes that the ob-
servations I have made will stand excused from the accusation
of presumption, and be regarded as arising from a simple sense
of duty.
DISCOURSE
DISCOURSE III.
MATTH, chap. xi. ver. 2 5,
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ,
he sent two of Ms Disciples, saying, Art thou lie that should
come, or do me look for another ?...,,, Jesus anstvered and said
unlo them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do
hear and see : the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk;
the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear; the dead are raised
iip, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them.
CHRISTIANITY opens to our view a wide and
almost boundless field of moral and religious
speculation ; of all that tends to the promotion
of social order, of domestic happiness and inward
peace. To love God and to love man; to be
thankful to our Maker and Redeemer, and have
fervent Charity one towards another; to visit
the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and
keep ourselves unspotted from the world ; precepts
of the most earnest piety, the most refined purity,
and the most exalted and extensive benevolence ;
E
SO HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 3.
these form the substance of the Gospel, and
are scattered with a bountiful profusion over the
whole face of the sacred writings. And it is to
this inexhausted and inexhaustible treasury of
divine truths that we have the blessed privilege
of applying for instruction and consolation. It is
hence the ministers of religion draw the matter
of their discourse, and lead their hearers to the
realms of bliss by the mild, undeviating light of
that pure and heavenly wisdom which is from
above.
We must remember, however, that a well-
grounded faith is the only solid foundation of
practice, and that in all the relations of life
something must necessarily be believed before
any thing can be done. If we are to comply
with the laws of the land and the ordinances of
the magistrate, we must first know that there is
an authority to enact those laws and a power
which is enabled to enforce the penalties attached
to their transgression. If we are to come to
God, as his worshippers under a form of natural
religion, we must believe, from the contemplation
of nature, " that he is," and from the deductions
of reason upon the general tendency of his pro-
ceedings, " that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him ;" and to the certainty or
probability of these important inferences we must
Lect. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 51
look for the only grounds and motives of our
obedience. If, again, we are to become the
disciples of a religion which claims a divine
original as one of the revelations of God, we
must first of all believe that it was so revealed :
and if, in particular, we are to pay an implicit
deference to the words of Christ, and to follow
every tittle and iota of his commandments as
our Lord and Master we must previously be
convinced that he is our Lord and Master, endued
above measure with the Spirit, and armed beyond
example with the authority of heaven. We must
be satisfied that the character which he assumed
did really belong to him, and that he was in fact
what he unequivocally declared himself to be,
the Messiah of God, and the Saviour of the
world. If, in the last place, we would live
wholly as Christians, we must believe wholly as
Christians, and yield an unfeigned and unreserved
assent to the truth and divinity of the whole of
our religion. It would thus appear that religious
faith, under some of its modifications, is the root
of all moral practice, and no other foundation
therefore can any man lay, whereon to build the
temple of the beauty of holiness, than that which
is laid in the holy Scriptures, where righteous-
ness stands uniformly connected with faith, and
disobedience is referred to a principle of unbelief.
" Without faith" of that kind and in that degree
E2
5 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lett, 3.
in which by our situation we are capable of
attaining it, " it is impossible to please God."*
Nor is this all. Were a mere profession or
possession of belief the whole of what was
required of us by the Gospel, it would be need-
less to dwell upon the evidences of revelation
before those who, from whatever cause, whether
from prejudice, from ignorance, from education
or from inquiry, had already become convinced
of the certainty and divinity of that religion under
which they had been born. But it so happens
that we Christians are called upon, in the language
of an inspired Apostle,-f to be in a state of constant
preparation to satisfy the inquiries of any one
who desires to ascertain the validity of those
grounds upon which our opinion principally rests.
We are not only to know the leading and
fundamental arguments by which the system of
Christianity is supported, for our own comfort ;
but we are to know them with such precision,
and to recollect them with such facility, and to
state them with such clearness, and to arrange
them in such order, that we may "be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh of us
a reason of the hope that is in us." This forms
a part of our general duty as Christians, and I
* Heb. xi. 6, t 1 Pet, iii, 15
Zeci,3.] HULSEAN LECTUKES, 1820. 53
cannot therefore but deem that course of educa-
tion, however excellent in other respects, to be
defective in itself,* which sends forth any indi-
vidual into the active scenes of life, unfurnished
with that preparatory and essential information
upon sacred subjects, which may empower him
to think and to reason upon the religion he has
embraced, with satisfaction to others, and with
ease to himself. For my own part, then, though
I cannot pretend to fulfil the request which has
been made to me by some, of laying down " a
regular course of Divinity for those undergraduates
who do not intend to enter the Church," f vet
do I feel it unavoidably to fall within the sphere
of my appointed duties, to endeavour to lay before
them such an impartial and connected view of
the evidences of the Gospel, as may serve to
distinguish the relative value of each particular
branch, and point out the respective share which
the miracles and the prophecies, the life and the
doctrines of our Saviour, possess, in contributing
to the final result. To depth or novelty I prefer
* The internal discipline of particular Colleges supplies this
defect in the Cambridge system of education; but in the Public
Examination for degrees, the religious knowledge thus acquired
is not brought to the test, and receives neither commendation nor
reward.
t A few days before I commenced these Lectures, I received
a letter containing this request, and stating that several had felt
the want of such a course.
54 HULSEAN LECTURES, .1820. [Lect.Q.
no strong or exclusive claim. It would be strange
indeed, and much to be lamented, as well as
wondered at, if the uninterrupted efforts of
eighteen hundred years, had left much to be
gathered in the field of evidence. A few ripe
and fruitful ears may have been forgotten in haste,
or overlooked by carelessness, but the riches
of the harvest must long ago have been gathered
by the first and most assiduous reapers ; nor can
we expect to employ ourselves in any other or
more useful labour than that of sifting the
produce and ascertaining its aggregate amount.
Still more idle will it be, to study to be difficult,
in the hope of being counted as profound. Diffi-
culty is in itself no essential mark of excellence,
and the wise providence of God has so ordained
it, that the most valuable truths are usually the
most simple and easy to be understood.
The words of my text contain the most
essential part of our Saviour's answer to the
inquiry of John the Baptist, whether he was or
was not the Messiah. " When John had heard
in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of
his disciples, saying, Art thou he that should
come, or do we look for another?" a circumstance
which must, I think, be generally known and
remembered. It is attended, however, with one
peculiar difficulty, The question, at first sight,
Lect. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 55
appears to have been altogether unnecessary,
John having already and frequently acknowledged
Jesus as that Prophet which was to come into the
world. When the Priests and Levites were sent
from Jerusalem to question John as to his real
character and pretensions, and to learn whether
he himself was not that great Deliverer of whom
a general expectation was at that time entertained
in the East, " he denied not, but confessed, I am
not the Christ." * He owned that he was not that
Light, but was sent only to bear witness of the
Light, and prepare the way of the Lord. In con-
sequence of this confession, when our Saviour
afterwards came to fulfil all righteousness and be
baptized of him in Jordan, he, at first, hesitated,
from a sense of his own great unworthiness to
perform so honourable an office to one so much
his superior. His scruples were, however, at
length over-ruled, He saw the Spirit of God
descending in a bodily shape, and resting on the
head of Jesus. He heard a voice from Heaven,
saying, " This is my beloved Son in whom I am
well pleased ;" and then, in the fulness of con-
viction, he freely and openly declared to every
one, upon whom his testimony could have any
influence, that this Jesus of Nazareth, whom he
had baptized, was indeed the Lamb of God and
* John i. 20.
56 HUXSEAN LECTURES, 1880. [Lect.3.
the Saviour of the world. After such a public
and unequivocal declaration of his sentiments, and
after having heard of all the many and mighty
miracles which our Saviour performed, and which
were rumoured throughout all Judea, it does
undoubtedly appear singular that he should yet
think it necessary to send two of his disciples to
inquire, whether he was that Prophet which was
to come, or they were to look for another. Upon
this point we should have supposed him to have
been already thoroughly satisfied.
For the resolution of this difficulty it has
usually been maintained, that the inquiry did not
originate in any doubts which the Baptist himself
entertained, but was merely instituted for the
satisfaction of his unbelieving followers, who
might, perhaps, have so great a respect for their
immediate Master, as to be unwilling to acknow-
ledge the superior power and dignity of any
other prophet, It is certainly possible that this
might have been the reason of the inquiry ; but
there are yet several weighty objections to this
statement of the case, which induce me to prefer
a different opinion. When the disciples of John
first came to our Saviour, they immediately
announced both by whom and for what purpose
they had been sent. " John Baptist," said they,
" hath sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he
Lect.&,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 57
that should come, or do we look for another ?"
In answer to this demand our Saviour first
repeated in their presence many of his most
astonishing miracles,* and healed the sick,
cleansed the lepers, restored sight to the blind,
raised the dead, and then dismissed them with
this command, " Go and shew John again those
things which ye do hear and see." The message
had been sent by John, and to him the answer
is not only generally, as in the natural course of
things, but more peculiarly and specially directed.
Now this is a form of expression which, I think,
our Saviour would scarce have used, had he not
been assured that the satisfaction of the Baptist
himself was principally intended. For Jesus
knew what was in man, and needed not that any
one should tell him the object of their requests.
He perceived men's thoughts long before, and
generally directed his answers to the thoughts,
rather than to the words, of those by whom he
was questioned. Such also then we might na-
turally expect would have been his conduct upon
the present occasion ; and had he been aware that
the inquiry was prompted rather by the doubts of
the disciples than of their Master, it is highly
probable that he would have changed his lan-
guage and said, " Ye have seen my miracles and
* Luke vii. 21,
58 HULSEAN LECTURES, 18120. [Lect. 3.
ye have heard my doctrines Go, then, believe,
and be no longer faithless."
But upon this principle the original difficulty
still recurs, and we have still to account for the
uncertainty which the Baptist experienced in his
own mind. In this, however, if we will duly
consider the circumstances in which he was
placed, and the channel through which the fame
of our Saviour's miracles had hitherto been com-
municated to his ears, we shall find but little, if
any difficulty at all. John was now lingering out
his life in captivity under the tyranny of Herod,
far removed from the scene of our Saviour's glory,
and of course entirely deprived of the power of be-
coming himself an eye-witness of his miracles. To
this the Evangelist expressly directs our attention,
when he introduces his account of the message,
by observing, that " John had heard) in the
prison, the works of Christ." The only means,
therefore, which he possessed .of ascertaining
whether any miracles had really been wrought,
and whether the person by whom they were said
to have been wrought was that very Jesus whom
he "had himself baptized, was, by making the
necessary inquiries through the medium of those
in whose honesty and fidelity he could place
implicit confidence those who knew the person
of Jesus, and who would faithfully relate to him the
Led. S.j HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 59
things which they beheld. For though the won-
derful mercies of Christ might be, and were,
actually rumoured through all the region round
about, yet so many false prophets had already
arisen, to whom the multitude's had liberally
attributed miraculous powers, that little could
be gathered from that circumstance ; and the
voice of common fame is, at any rate, of too
fleeting and uncertain a nature to form a suffi-
cient foundation for our belief in any matter of
difficulty and importance. The disciples of John
might also, and as we are informed, did shew
him of all these things. But it is by no means
certain that they spoke of them as wonders
which they had seen with their own eyes, or
as facts which they knew from their own expe-
rience. It is rather probable, from the course
which John afterwards pursued, in sending two
of them as his messengers to our Lord, that they
had merely detailed them to him as the subjects
of general and common conversation. But the
Baptist was not so destitute of sense and pru-
dence as to trust the issue of his faith upon the
very slender credit which is due to a flying
report. To remove those doubts, therefore,
which were unavoidably and rationally inspired
by the suspicious channel of the testimony, he
chose two of his disciples, on whose observation
and fidelity he could best rely, to ascertain the
60 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. {Led. 3.
truth or falsehood of the rumour which had
reached him. They came, they saw, they heard,
they believed, and then returned with the glad
tidings of certainty to their Master. And he also
heard, and he also believed. His uncertainty
was built upon just and reasonable grounds. It
was the result of a want of confidence either in
those who bore witness to the miracles of Jesus,
or in the identity of the person by whom they
were performed. When that want of confidence
was once removed, the effect ceased with the
cause, and he became thoroughly convinced. For
Scripture often speaks to us as positively by its
silence, as its assertions, t and in the future pages
of the Evangelist we meet with no other symptom
whatever of the Baptist's doubt.
Such is the very simple and sensible explana-
tion which was originally given of this difficulty
in the earlier ages of the church, by the author*
of those questions which stand amongst the works
of Justin Martyr : and it is somewhat singular
that the opinion should have been so soon and
entirely forgotten, that I have looked for it in
vain either in the majority of the fathers or the
more modern Commentators. Every wild and
* " He sent his disciples to ascertain whether the person who
performed these miracles was or was not the same person to
whom he had, himself borne witness." Quest, and, Respons, 38,
Lect. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 61
hypotheticalimagination which fancycould suggest
they have successively proposed and approved,
whilst this solid answer has always had the fate
to be deserted. It has been held by some, that
John doubted, because the miraculous powers of
Christ were not exerted for his own deliverance
from captivity ; whilst others have supposed that
by the question which he asked, " Art thou he
that should come ?" he did not mean to inquire
whether Jesus was the Messiah who was to
come as a Saviour upon the earth, but whether
he was that being who was to go down to the
habitation of departed souls and there " preach
to the spirits in prison," which were sometime
disobedient in the days of Noah. But let us
leave these idle vanities, which have nothing but
a shew of seeming wisdom to recommend them,
and turn to the practical advantages which may
be derived from the examination, for the improve-
ment and security of our own faith.
It i's evident, then, that the answer of our
Saviour, was both intended by himself, and received
by the Baptist, as a satisfactory answer to the
question he had proposed. The question proposed
was this, " Art thou he tUat should come," the
promised Messiah of the Scriptures? The answer
therefore must be conceived to convey to every
one who may be placed in circumstances resem-
62 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Led. 3,
bling those of the Baptist, a solid and sufficient
demonstration that Jesus was the Christ. Is it so ?
We are placed in the situation of John. We,
like him, are imprisoned by the tyranny of time
within the narrow limits of the age in which we
live, and cannot get forth to hear the doctrines of
Jesus by sitting at his feet, or become convinced
of his miracles by the testimony of our senses.
But, like him also, we have the testimony of
others, who declare that they have both seen and
heard these things. What the first disciples
spake to their contemporaries by the tongue, they
still speak by their writings unto us, in a voice
which is living and irresistible. Into the argu-
ments for the genuineness and integrity of their
testimony I cannot, and it is happily unnecessary,
to enter. The subject is too comprehensive for
the brevity of my plan, and has been almost
exhausted by the enlightened labours of others.
This only I will say, that the genuineness and
integrity of the sacred writings, as containing
the evidence of the Apostles of Jesus, are sup-
ported by more numerous and varied testimonies,
both of friends and enemies, designed and casual,
explicit and incidental, than those of any other
author whatsoever: and let him that thinketh
otherwise but take the trouble of instituting the
comparison. Is there, then, to be found for us
in the books of the New Testament a proof of
Led. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 63
the fundamental article of the Christian creed,
that Jesus was the Messiah ? a proof, I mean,
as credible and as satisfactory as was the answer
of our Lord to the Baptist ? If there be, what
is the nature of that proof? These are the ques-
tions upon which we are now to debate and
determine, and my endeavour will be, to shew
that the proof is in both cases complete, and,
with a few necessary limitations, the same.
To justify our assent in any of those matters of
faith, where acquiescence is demanded upon the
authority of others, there are only two things (the
genuineness of the testimony being supposed) of
which it is necessary to be assured; the credibility
of the witnesses, and the sufficiency of what they
allege to establish the point in dispute. If the
witnesses be unworthy of confidence, it matters
little how decisive their testimony may be, and
if the testimony be inconclusive, the truth of the
witnesses themselves will be of little avail ; but
where both are united, the controversy is at an
end. Upon these two things then hangs all
the weight of the Christian religion; and the
result, whether favourable or unfavourable, will
be the same, to whichever of the two we first
direct our attention. I shall therefore proceed to
consider them in the order in which they stand,
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect. 3.
and examine, first, the credibility of the wit-
nesses themselves.
If it be asked upon what ground of credibility
the Baptist relied, when he trusted to the report
of the individuals whom he had sent to Jesus, we
answer, with boldness, upon their number and
upon their character. In the. mouth of two wit-
nesses was every thing established before him,
and those witnesses were the objects of his own
peculiar choice, men of good report, and persons
with whose fidelity and integrity he was fully
acquainted. They had no prejudices to mislead
their judgment, in favour of the pretensions of
our Lord; no interest to serve by deceiving their
Master, by falsifying, by misrepresenting, by
magnifying or by diminishing what they had
heard and seen.
Such were his own disciples unto John, and
such also, but in authority more unimpeachable,
are the Apostles and Evangelists of Christ unto
us, more numerous, more capable, more faithful,
and more disinterested witnesses of the truth.
Yet perhaps I should scarce say that they were
disinterested ; for they were solicited by the
united ties of nature, of habit, of education, and
of religion, to resist even the evidence of their
Zed 3.] HULSEAN LECTTJ&ES, 1820. 65
senses, and stifle the very firmest convictions of
their mind. They were tempted to a denial of
their Master by every motive which usually in-
fluences the actions and opinions of men; by the
sense of difficulty and danger, by the love of
ease, and the little prospect which they enjoyed
of success. They were tempted to unbelief by
the various prejudices they had to combat, both
in themselves and others, by the persecutions to
which they were liable, the self-denials to which
they were called, the disappointment of all their
favourite schemes, hopes, and ideas, and by the
poverty and wretchedness, the stripes and death
to which they were doomed, both by the nature
of the case and the prophecies of their Lord.
Yet did they resolutely maintain that Jesus of
Nazareth, the crucified Jesus, was the great and
promised Deliverer of Israel, and voluntarily
submitted to a strict and rigid system of morality,
to every variety of fatigue and suffering, in the
laborious and, to all human probability, the hope-
less undertaking of propagating his religion. It
is true, indeed, that for once they all forsook
him and fled. But that confirms instead of weak-
ening their testimony, because it arose from a
want of adequate and correct views into the
nature and dignity of his doctrines. They beheld
him only with the eyes of the flesh. They looked
to him as the Redeemer of Israel, not from the
66 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, \Lect. 8,
bondage of sin, but the sorrows of servitude ; not
from the power of Satan, but the authority of
Caesar. They trusted that he would be the Con-
queror of the world, and they themselves called
to sit down upon his right hand and upon his
left to become the rulers of provinces and wield
the sceptre of dominion in some tributary king-
dom. This charm of the imagination was, how-
ever, quickly broken by his death. Reflection
came to the aid of Reason, and cheered by his
resurrection, and illuminated by his Spirit, they
went on from virtue to virtue, and from faith to
faith. They at once assumed a new character
and new dispositions. Their own views had
been graciously corrected, and with the benevo-
lence of upright and honest men, they endeavoured
zealously, but without enthusiasm, to correct the
errors and the prejudices of others. In the con-
fidence of their integrity, and the mild firmness
of their sincerity, they proclaimed remission of
sins through faith in Christ Jesus that Jesus
whom the Jews had crucified and slain, but whom
God had raised from the dead. They every where
preached the Gospel of peace, till either the force
of truth triumphed over the blindness of error,
or they themselves fell victims in the cause, and
sunk under the malice and persecution of their
enemies. Their trials were deep ; but in all
their trials they ever spoke and acted as those
Lect*&.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 67
who thought it better to obey God than man,
and as those who could not but testify the things
which they had heard and seen : and as in the
hour of his distress they had all forsaken their
Saviour and fled, so did they afterwards endeavour
to expiate their crime, by forsaking all, to return
to him again, and follow him in the face of terror
and of misery, even through the valley of the
shadow of death. If this be not sincerity, I
know not where sincerity can be found. It may
be, that some, besides the Apostles, have died
rather than retract the false assertions which
they had previously made ; and hence we may
infer the possibility, at least, of a similar occur-
rence in the present case. But where are those
that have died as the Apostles died, to be found ?
I know of none. If there be any who have
entered into the gates of the grave rather than
retract testimony which they had borne to what
was false, it has been for maintaining the truth
of false opinions and not of false facts that
they so suffered. Or if there be any, and I deny
not that there are some, who have suffered for
bearing testimony to facts which we are per-
suaded are false, it has been under circumstances
where a renunciation of their testimony would not
have saved them from death. It has been with
criminals alone in the hour of execution and the
hopelessness of pardon from a confession of guilt,
F2
68 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lcct. 3,
that a perseverance in a false assertion of inno-
cence has been found.* But there is an important
difference and a manifest superiority in the case
of the Apostles, to both of them. They suffered
not for stubbornness of opinion so much as the
assertion of facts, and not for the mere assertion
of facts alone, but for the continued and imdeviat-
ing assertion of facts, of which, if they would
have renounced their belief, they might have
lived and been rewarded. Such were the fol-
lowers of Jesus Christ; and even their persecutors
when they viewed their patience under suffering
must have felt and acknowledged their sincerity
in their fortitude must have perceived that they
spoke of what they knew, and thought, at least,
that they had seen the wonders which they
recorded.
But have we not here introduced a circum-
stance which vitiates the credibility of at least
some portion of their evidence ? If the works of
Christ were of such a wonderful nature, is it not
possible that the understandings of the Apostles
might have been so confounded by the awfulness,
and unsettled by the glory, of the scenes to which
they were admitted, as to make them think that
they had seen what they never saw, and so to
* The Ashtons at Lancaster, and two criminals at the last
assizes at Carlisle, died declaring their innocence against the
clearest proof of their guilt.
Lcct. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 69
mistake and misrepresent the mighty acts of the
Lord, as to render their testimony admissible only
to a certain extent ? In answer to this question,
let us contemplate for a moment the character of
the facts themselves.
One of them is this. " There arose a great
tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was
covered with the waves, but Jesus was asleep." *
Now, who is there, with the common senses of
mortality about him, that could not give a clear
and decided testimony to an occurrence so usual
and yet so striking as this? Again, it is said,
that his " disciples came to him and awoke him,
saying, ' Lord, save us, we perish.' " And who
that has the feelings and memory of a man,
would not recollect to the latest hour of his life
the fears he had experienced, and the words he
had uttered, in a moment so trying and so ter-
rible ? Lastly, it is observed, that Jesus " arose
and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea,
* Peace, be still.' And the wind ceased and there
was a great calm." And who, I would ask, that
had ears to hear, would not remember the
answer of his Master in such an hour ? Or who
that had eyes to see, could refuse to mark the
change which had been wrought upon the waters
of the deep ?
* Matt. viii. 24, &c.
70 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Ltd. 3,
Take another instance. " "When Jesus was
come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother
laid, and sick of a fever." The fact is simple in
itself, and one of which the testimony of the
most unlearned is a sufficient proof; and as little
could the most careless be mistaken in that which
immediately follows : " And he touched her hand,
and the fever left her, and she arose, and minis-
tered unto them." *
Now, what is there in either of these narratives
that should make us doubt the competency of an
honest man to give a clear and consistent testi-
mony ? The circumstances are all in themselves
of ordinary occurrence. That a fever should
quit the body of a woman who was sick, and
that she should rise from her bed to return to her
usual occupations that the tempest should
cease its raging, and the troubled billows of a
stormy ocean become still in all this there was
nothing to confound the understanding or mislead
the judgment of them that saw it. I do not
pretend to say, that all the works of Jesus, which
the Apostles beheld and have recorded, were of
the same simple and ordinary character. I know
that many were of a different complexion. I have
followed my Redeemer to the solitudes of Galilee,
. * Matt, xviii, 14,
Lect.Q.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 71
and there marked the amazement of the disciples'
mind, as they looked upon the glory of his
transfiguration, and were sore afraid, neither
knowing what to think, nor wisting what to say.
I have seen him walking in the hour of darkness
upon the waters, and scarce wondered at the
faithlessness of Peter. I have been with the
Apostles to the Mount of Olives, and, struck
dumb with the wonders of the scene, have con-
tinued gazing, with them, abstractedly up into
heaven, vainly endeavouring to pierce the cloud
by the intensity of my vision, and catch another
glimpse of my ascended Lord. I have meditated
solemnly upon all these things, and humbly con-
fess, that had I been admitted, like the Apostles,
to behold .them upon the earth, I know not
whether I could have held the possession of my
faculties unimpaired. But what of this ? If by
arguments deduced from those miracles of Jesus
which were of a more common and less con-
founding nature, if by inferences drawn from
those wonders where mercy, unmingled with
awfulness, prevailed, and where there were no
splendid terrors to drive Reason from her seat,
and where there was nothing, therefore, that
could impeach the credibility of the witnesses,
if by the testimony of the Evangelists to simple
facts, we can once fairly establish the divine
authority of the Gospel, the certainty of every
7 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. \Ltct. 3.
other wonder it records, however awfully glorious
or sublimely obscure, must follow in the train of
its various consequences. We may not, perhaps,
be authorized to reckon the Transfiguration or
the Ascension amongst the number of those
premises from which the truth of Christianity
itself is in the first .instance, or solely, to be
drawn; but, when once that truth has been
ascertained by any other means, the truth of these
wonders becomes a necessary and irresistible con-
clusion, because they form a part of what has
already been proved to be true. It is requisite
to mark and remember this distinction between
the different kinds of our Saviour's miracles,
because it is by exclusively directing his efforts
against those which are more singular in their
nature, that the Deist would disturb the repose
of the Christian upon the credibility of the
Evangelists.
Seeing, then, that they lived a life of suffering,
and died a death of torture in the cause, the
Apostles of our Lord must be allowed to have
been faithful and unprejudiced witnesses, and
their testimony, as such, to be substantially true.
Deny, then, what we may, and disbelieve what
we will, we cannot overthrow the credit which
is due to the inspired writers, or call in question
Lect. 3.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, 73
the general truth of the Gospel History. One of
the leading propositions contained in that History
is this, that Jesus was the Messiah ; and, in con-
firmation and defence of their opinion, the Evan-
gelists have detailed the miracles which they saw,
the doctrines which they heard, and the prophecies
which were fulfilled. The only doubt, therefore,
which can possibly remain, is, whether what they
had thus heard and seen, be a sufficient proof that
Jesus was indeed the Christ. Having shewn that
the Evangelists are witnesses as credible to us,
as were his own disciples unto John, the only
further question to be considered is, whether the
testimony of the Evangelists be of the same con-
clusive character. But this is an inquiry of too
extensive a nature to be comprehended within the
short remainder of the present Discourse ; and I
shall, therefore, conclude with a few plain and
practical reflections.
Were I speaking to the natives of some distant
clime did I bear the venerable character of
a Christian Apostle to the deluded votaries of
Mahometism or idolatry did I stand as a mis-
sionary upon the shores of India, where the
convert to the Gospel becomes the outcast of
society, despised and hated and rejected of men
I might point to the animating example of the
first disciples, and shew, by what Christians have
74 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 3.
suffered, what Christians are able to suffer, for
the sake of their religion. But, by the blessing
of God, in this happy and well-favoured land,
Christianity has grown to be the religion of the
state, and an essential feature in the laws of the
land. Christianity, too, is here in its purest and
its mildest form, declaring in our Articles, that
nothing is to be pressed upon the consciences
of men which cannot be found in Holy Scrip-
ture, or may not be proved thereby. Here,
then, we stand in no fear of being sacrificed to
idols or slaughtered by bigotry. Benevolence is
the spirit of the Gospel, and moderation the
practice of our church. Here, then, it may be
hoped, we shall have no cause to prove the
sincerity of our faith by the patience of our
suffering. But still, though free from every
outward harm, we have a hidden and a powerful
enemy within us. We have still to struggle with
the strength of our passions and the corruption of
our nature " The flesh lusteth always contrary to
the spirit:" and thus far at least " it is through
much tribulation that every man must enter into
the kingdom of God." Wherefore, that we may
be the better enabled to resist our temptations,
and conquer our weaknesses, and mortify our
members, and triumph over the affections of our
hearts, and quench within us the lusts of youth,
the ambition of manhood, and the avarice of age,
Lect. 3.] HULSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. 75
let us be clothed with the armour of righteous-
ness on the right hand and on the left. But,
above all, let us take unto ourselves " the sword
of the Spirit," which is the word of God ; that,
whilst with the hope and helmet of salvation, we
guard our minds from terror and despair, with
this " sword of the Spirit," with some godly text
of Scripture rightly applied, we may cut asunder
every flimsy thread of reasoning, which the
ingenuity of man has perversely formed, to dis-
tract the feelings and disturb the understandings
of weaker brethren, " It is written," said our
Saviour, under his temptation by the devil ; " It
is written," was all that he said, and he van-
quished his adversary. Search the Scriptures
with fidelity and meekness, and make the same
answer in your own temptations, and you will
soon learn to feel the force of the Word of God,
and to confess that it is the only instrument
which erring man can safely use in his great
contest with the enemies of his soul.
DISCOURSE IV.
2 TIM, chap. in. ver. 13.
" Deceiving and being deceived."
THE honesty and sincerity of the Evangelists
as men, and their credibility as witnesses of the
facts and doctrines which they declare that they
had seen and heard, are of such primary and
essential importance in every inquiry or attempt
to prove the truth or divinity of the Christian reli-
gion, that I considered it as absolutely necessary
to repeat, in my last Discourse, those various
arguments which have been so often and forcibly
urged in defence of their testimony. Upon a
review of those reasonings I am unable to per-
ceive their deficiency or inconclusiveness in any
single point, or to imagine that there is any thing
either in the circumstances under which their
evidence has reached us, or the facts to which
that evidence relates, which should disturb, in the
Lect. 4.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 77
smallest degree } our confidence in its genuineness,
or our belief in its substance. There are others,
however (God is their judge), who, coming forth
before the world with pretensions to a juster
mode of reasoning, and a more impartial spirit of
philosophy (but, as I humbly conceive, both
" deceiving and being deceived"), have ventured
to pronounce a different opinion, and to affirm,
that, however credible the Evangelists might be
to their contemporaries, they are no longer pos-
sessed of the same authority. They assert, that
the lapse of time which has passed away since the
Scriptures were written, has gradually undermined
the strength of their testimony ; and that, even
had that strength not been thus weakened by the
canker of ages, it would have been insufficient to
bear the weight which is imposed upon it, of
assuring us of the occurrence of a variety of
miraculous facts. Now, if in examining the
principles by which these conclusions are sup-
ported, we can find, that they are altogether
inapplicable to the Christian writers, we shall
have done sufficient to vindicate our own holy
faith, and without entering at all into the general
soundness of the reasoning when applied to cases
of a different complexion. It shall, therefore, be
my endeavour to shew that the cause of Chris-
tianity is of such a nature as to be exempt
from the force of these objections, however great
1$ HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [LtctA.
maybe that force when directed against other
religions.
1. In the first place, we are to consider the
circumstances under which the testimony of the
Evangelists has reached us.
Now, it is evident that we ourselves have not,
like the primitive Christians, either seen the works
or heard the words, or been conversant with the
person of our Saviour, or of his Apostles. All that
we reason upon as to the religion of Jesus, and
all that we know of the character, and conduct,
and doctrine of his immediate disciples, is derived,
as a matter of history, from the testimony of
othersfrom the dwellers in distant countries,
and in ages remote from our own. Hence it has
been insinuated by some, that the probability of
the truth of Christianity, like the probability of all
other matters of history, must have suffered, from
the very nature of the case, a considerable and
unavoidable diminution of its force, by being
transmitted through a number of successive
individuals and generations ; so that whatever
might have been its original credibility, that
credibility they pronounce to have undergone a
very serious reduction. " The diminution of
evidence by this species of transmission may,"
says Laplace, " be compared to the extinction of
Lect.4i.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, 79
light by the interposition of several pieces of
glass. A small number of pieces will be sufficient
to render an object entirely invisible, which a
single piece allowed to be seen very distinctly." *
Now, I can easily admit that if the report
of any fact were to be transmitted through twenty
individuals, in different countries, and in regular
succession, and we ourselves were to receive
the account from the twentieth witness alone, a
very serious degradation of probability might have
taken place, and our reliance upon the reality of
the fact would necessarily be reduced in pro-
portion to the circumstances of the case. The
insulated testimony of some tenth transmitter of
a wondrous tale, however credible in itself, can
never be counted of equal certainty with that of
the original witness or agent in the transaction.
But if the person who communicates the fact in
question to us, can refer us back to the person
from whom he himself received the account, and
we could thus pass from country to country, and
consult the whole series of witnesses, till we
arrived at the source and fountain of the report
itself, the uniformity of their several testimonies
would, in that case, materially strengthen our
belief, and the probability of the fact would suffer
no diminution whatever. If an inhabitant of
. * Edin, Rev, 1814; No, XLVI. p, 825.
.80 HUX.SS.AN LECTUUES, 1820. [Led. 4.
Scotland were to assert the existence of some
splendid monarchy in the centre of the African
desert, as a fact which he had heard in Italy,
from those who had travelled into Spain, and
there met with some merchants of Tripoly who
had received the accounts from several wander-
ing Arabs, who declared that they had visited its
metropolis, and beheld its greatness,my confidence
in the existence of such a monarchy would be
reduced in proportion to the credibility of the
fact, the number of transmissions, and the pos<
sibility of deception or mistake. But if by tra-
velling back in regular order through the several
links in this chain of testimony ; if by visiting
Italy and Spain and Africa in person, and in
succession, I could trace the report through all
its steps (finding it always uniform), till I had
arrived at the original propagators, the proba-
bility of the fact would be the same to me as to
the very first individual to whom it was communi-
cated. In this manner I should remove, as it
were, the interposing pieces of glass which
prevented the transmission of the light of truth,
one by one, and be enabled, at last, to perceive
and to judge of the object presented to my
mental eye with the same distinctness and cer-
tainty as the first hearer of the story.
Of a similar character, as I conceive, is the
Led. 4.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1880. 81
historical evidence for the truth of those facts
upon which Christianity is founded, with this only
difference, that our distance from the original
witnesses is that of centuries instead of countries,
and that the testimony is consequently written
and perpetuated instead of being oral and tran-
sitory. It is not merely that the writers of the
present day assert that eighteen hundred years
ago the Apostles and Evangelists bore a record
to Jesus, which record is true ; for then, indeed,
my reliance would scarce arise to any high degree
of evidence. But the real and correct state-
ment of the question is this ; I can begin with
the writers of the present day, and tracing their
evidence upwards in a regular and unbroken suc-
cession, and comparing and verifying it as I go
along, can reach at length the testimony of those
primitive Christians who heard the Apostles de-
clare that they had seen the Lord and his works,
and even of those Apostles themselves who have
recorded the same. So far, therefore, as the cre-
dibility of those reporters may extend, so far does
the credibility of the facts they have reported ex-
tend also, and is the same to us, as it was to those
to whom it was originally given. The truth may
not be so easily and immediately perceived in
this case, as in those in which there are no in-
termediate witnesses, because the attention and
labour of verifying the report through all its
82 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 4,
stages is great and tedious. But when once the
task has been accomplished, the conclusion is
equally satisfactory and sure : and the fallacy of
supposing otherwise seems to me to have arisen
from the practice of considering the testimonies
to the genuineness of the New Testament, that
is, to the genuineness of the original records of
the works and words of Jesus, in a descending
instead of an ascending series. In c/escending
from the age of the Apostles to the present time,
we not only begin with a period in which, from
the very nature of the case, the testimonies are
more scanty and few ; but we are obliged also
to take for granted the age and genuineness of
the works from which we quote, until the whole
demonstration has been completed. On the
other hand, in ascending upwards from the
present writers, the whole line of our argument
is natural and conclusive. We take for granted
nothing but what is the subject of our own
individual experience, the existence of certain
books in which we read that their writers received
the genuineness of the New Testament upon
the authority of their predecessors for many
generations. We turn to those predecessors in
regular order, and find them constantly testifying
the same, and thus at length, by regular gra-
dation and infallible reasoning, we reach the
source and fountain of the historical stream. It
Lect, 4,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 83
has always, therefore, appeared to me, in my
meditations upon the genuineness and credibility
of the apostolic records, that the only, or, at least,
the most judicious plan of treating the subject
would be that which has so lately been pursued
by a learned Prelate in his Lectures from this
place, namely, to arrange the testimonies in a
retrograde order, beginning from the present
time, and going upwards to the apostolic days ;
and I doubt not but that the impression produced
upon the reader's mind by such a method will,
when properly managed, be found much more
convincing than in the ordinary way.
From the preceding observations it appears
that were there no more than one chain of testi-
mony from the days of the Apostles to the
present, were there no more than one witness
in each succeeding age, we should have no more
reason to refuse our assent than the first person
to whom the Gospel history was recounted. But
this is not a correct statement of the question.
There are many chains of testimony from the days
of the Apostles to the present. There are many
witnesses in every succeeding age; and conse-
quently, if we will deal technically with the
subject, the probability or possibility that any
single witness or chain of witnesses should deceive
or be deceived, must be opposed by the im-
G 2
84 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect, 4.
probability or impossibility that so many wit-
nesses or chains of witnesses should be deceived ;
and the improbability of the latter would soon be
found to be so great as to obliterate the former in
the mind of every reflecting man.
It would seem, then, that the objection of
Laplace which has been deemed so formidable by
some, and which assumes a constantly increasing
diminution of probability in the transmission of
every historical fact, is not applicable to the evi-
dence for the Christian history, because we are
in possession of the testimonies of every successive
age, and can identify and verify each. The true
statement, of the difficulty, if any there be, is this ;
that, in consequence of the number of transmis-
sions, the examination and verification of the
evidence requires a much greater degree of impar-
tiality and attention. But when once it has been
thoroughly and fairly investigated, the probability
instead of being lessened, is perhaps increased
by the number and uniformity of the witnesses,
every one of whom may be supposed to have
scrupulously weighed the matter, before he set
his seal to its truth, and many of whom had
prejudices which would have naturally inclined
them to resist their convictions.
2. We have thus seen that, in all the ordinary
Lect. 4.] HULSEAN I/ECTURES, 1820, 85
events of the Gospel history, there is no real
"degradation of the probability of facts when seen
across a great number of successive generations,"
because the line of testimony continues unbroken
through each. But it has been doubted (and this
is the second objection to the admission of the
truth of the Apostolic testimony, however appa-
rently credible), whether the same reasoning will
apply to events of an extraordinary nature, and
whether the improbability of miraculous facts is
not superior to that of every other evidence, and
to that of historical events, the best established.
" Events," observes the author to whom I have
before referred, " may be so extraordinary that
they can hardly be established by testimony."
This is but in other words to urge the celebrated
argument of Hume in his Essay,* and to insinuate
that no testimony, however derived, even from
a professed eye-witness, is able to overcome the
natural incredibility of miracles. To this author
therefore I shall turn, and endeavour to lay before
you such a statement of his reasoning as may
enable you to appreciate its truth and force under
every circumstance.
In the first part of this Essay, which relates
exclusively to the principles upon which the cre-
dibility of miraculous facts, in general, depends
* Hume's Essays, Vol. II. p. 109132.
86 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 4.
nothing can be more desultory and unconnected
than the arrangement of the matter, nor any thing
more loose and vague than the application of the
terms ; and as this want of order and precision
is peculiarly calculated to confuse and mislead,
I shall, before I proceed to reason at all upon
the subject, lay before you that methodical series
in which, as it appears to me, the premises,
upon which the fallacious conclusion against the
credibility of human testimony to miraculous
facts is founded, should follow each other.
The first and fundamental proposition of Mr.
Hume is this, that " a wise man proportions his
belief to the evidence," and that the credibility
of the fact, together with the credibility of the
testimony by which it is supported, are what in
every case compose the whole of the evidence.
Whenever, therefore, there is any incredibility
in a fact itself, he holds that this incredibility
must be subtracted from the credibility of the
testimony, and the balance being struck between
them, will give the degree of evidence in favour
of or against the fact.
Having admitted this reasoning, than which
nothing can seem to be more correct, we must
next examine what it is that, in his opinion,
constitutes both the credibility of facts and the
Lcct. 4.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 87
credibility of testimony. Now, upon these points
Hume lays it down as a certain principle, that
" experience is our only guide in reasoning con-
cerning matters of fact," whether we are reason-
ing concerning the nature of the facts themselves
or the nature of the testimony which supports
them. For, with regard to the testimony by which
any fact is supported, he asserts, that it is only
from our observation and experience of the con-
formity of facts to the declarations of witnesses
that we acquiesce in their truth at all. And with
regard to the facts themselves, he maintains that
their credibility is to be measured by their ana-
logy to our past experience of the same or similar
facts having occurred. If no such fact, therefore,
as that which is declared to have happened, has
ever happened before, he considers experience,
the measure of credibility, to amount in that case
to a direct and full proof against its occurrence.
If it has been known to have happened but rarely,
then the probability of its occurrence is in pro-
portion to that rarity. Hence, if uniform experi-
ence be against the occurrence of any alleged
fact, whilst the testimony is exceedingly strong
in its favour, " in that case," he says, " there is
proof against proof, of which the strongest must
prevail, but still with a diminution of its force in
proportion to that of its antagonist."
He therefore concludes, that as a firm and
88 HULSEAN LECTURES, 180. [Lect. 4.
unalterable experience is against the occurrence
of miracles, " the proof against a miracle, from
the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any
argument from experience can possibly be ima-
gined," and he deduces, as a plain and necessary
consequence, this general and important maxim ;
"that no testimony is sufficient to establish a
miracle unless the testimony be of such a kind,
that its falsehood would be more miraculous than
the fact it endeavours to establish." And even in
that case he maintains, that " there is a mutual
destruction of arguments, and the superior only
gives us an assurance suitable to that degree of
force which remains after deducting the inferior."
To the whole of this reasoning I deem it suffi-
cient to reply by denying that experience is in
all cases the measure of the intrinsic credibility
of facts, and more especially by denying that any
presumption can be formed against the reality ojf
the Christian miracles, because miracles have never
been known to be wrought upon any other occa-
sion. It appears to me that this proposition of
Hume is of too general a nature, and that he was
only authorized to assume, that "the intrinsic
credibility of facts is to be measured by their ana-
logy to our past experience of the same or similar
facts having occurred under the same or similar
circumstances." Hence, though we should allow
that a firm and invariable experience is against
Lect. 4?.] HXJLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 89
the occurrence of miracles in all other religions in
favour of which they have been alleged, it will
not follow that the same experience is against
their occurrence in favour of the Gospel, unless
we can prove such a resemblance between the
cases as to justify the application to the one of the
rules deduced from the other. With this import-
ant limitation the principle may be adopted both
as innocent and correct, and the propriety of this
limitation will, I trust, appear evident to all, who
will accompany me with impartiality through the
following illustrations :
It is the opinion of Hume that " the Indian
prince who refused to believe the first effects of
frost reasoned justly," because those effects "arose
from a state of nature with which he was unac-
quainted ;" but those who reflect with attention
upon his conduct, will rather, I should think, be
inclined to imagine that he reasoned weakly and
concluded hastily. That on a subject upon which
he was ignorant he should withhold the fulness of
his assent, until he had examined into every thing
connected with the evidence, was reasonable and
right; and if after due investigation he had found
that the circumstances under which the novel fact
was stated to have occurred, were altogether and
in every respect the same with those in which he
had uniformly observed a different result, he would
90 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 4.
doubtless have been authorized in continuing his
suspense, however powerful and unequivocal might
be the testimony by which the reality of the fact
was supported. But that he should refuse his
assent to any fact, merely because " it arose from
a state of nature with which he was unacquainted,"
and in which it was therefore impossible for him
to say whether the circumstances were or were
not the same with those in which he had observed
a different effect, was least of all like the conduct
of a correct and inductive philosopher, who always
presumes that when the results are different there
must have been some difference also in the nature
of the experiments under which they were pro-
duced. It was, in reality, neither more nor less
than turning his own ignorance into the infallible
standard of credibility. It was drawing an inference
against a fact, which had all the evidence which
mere testimony could give it, when even by his
own confession he must have perceived that he
was uninformed of the premises by which alone
such an inference could be justified. I dwell
upon the points in which the conclusion of this
Indian philosopher was false and unsound, because
his reasoning was precisely similar to that of those
sceptical philosophers who, in the present day,
would reject the Christian miracles upon the
ground of their being contradictory to experience.
Be it that we are assured by universal experience
Lect.4.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 91
that no miracles have ever been wrought for any
other purpose, there is still no incredibility in their
having been wrought in defence of the Jewish
and Christian revelations, because they differ so
entirely from every other purpose. In miracles
pretended to have been wrought in favour of any
particular sect of the true religion, the matter in
dispute has always been either frivolous, or un-
essential, or unholy, or capable of being determined
by the subordinate instruments of reason and
authority. Again, in miracles pretended to have
been wrought in favour of false religions, the
whole system, as in Mahometism, has been
impure, or, as in Idolatry, repugnant to the first
principles of reason, and the fundamental attri-
butes of the Deity. In all and every of these
cases, I should therefore indeed doubt the reality
of the best attested miracles, and say that their
intrinsic incredibility was sufficient to counter-
balance the weight of the strongest testimony,
because the voice of a constant and uniform expe-
rience is against the operation of divine miracles
in defence of any object which is either frivolous
or unrighteous, irrational or unnecessary. Upon
this we may boldly pronounce, because we have
had plentiful opportunities of remarking what
usually happens in such circumstances. But how
can this affect the credibility of miracles in any
instance in which the object is altogether of
92 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 4.
a different character, and where we have had no
opportunity whatever of observing what is the
usual method of God's proceeding ? Where, as
in the systems of the Gospel and the Law, the
internal evidence is so strong, the morality so
pure, the doctrine so holy, the end so important,
the means so wise, and whole tissue so blessed
and so .worthy of God, as to stand forth without
a parallel in the annals of mankind, there the
argument from the past cannot possibly apply.
We cannot here assume that miracles are con-
tradictory to experience, or even different from
our observation, because the fact is simply this,
that we are altogether destitute of experience and
without observation upon the subject. The voice
of experience must therefore be content to be
silent upon the proper or probable mode of estab-
lishing such a religion as that of the Bible, for
nothing like it has ever been seen in the records
of human history. The consequence is, that we
must throw experience out of consideration when-
ever we would estimate the natural credibility of
the mode in which Christianity is said to have
be^n actually propagated, and measure the extent
of our belief in its miracles, by the only remaining
branch of evidence, the capacity and fidelity of
the witnesses to the facts. Experience is neutral.
Testimony is positive. We must turn away there-
fore from the dumbness of the first, arid listen
Lect. 4.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 93
implicitly and exclusively to the latter. For it is
as irrational to reject testimony, when experience
is mute, in matters of religion as in matters of
philosophy, and as imprudent to deny the credibi-
lity of the miracles of revelation, because they
have never been observed to have been wrought
upon any other occasion, as to deny the freezing
of mercury under the pole, because it has never
been observed under the equator. The circum-
stances of the two experiments and occasions
being different we cannot with propriety expect
the same results in both.
The true doctrine, then, with regard to evi-
dence would appear to be just what we have
stated it to be, namely, that our experience of
what has already occurred, is a safe guide of reason-
ing and a sound rule of judgment as to the natural
credibility of alleged matters of fact, only in
those cases in which the circumstances are similar
or the same. Where the circumstances vary, and
in proportion as they vary, in the same degree are
the deductions from past experience inapplicable,
and in the same degree does testimony alone
become the measure of truth and the ground of
belief. And this is a rule which leaves the
testimony to every fact which is recorded in the
Bible, whether it be of a miraculous or of an
ordinary kind, both unimpeached and unim-
94? HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 4.
peachable. The declarations of the Evangelists are
equally credible, so far at least as this argument is
concerned, whether they record the most uncom-
mon or the commonest occurrences of our Saviour's
life; whether they merely relate his birth and
his burial, or ^speak of his bursting the barriers of
the grave and planting his footsteps on the waters
of the deep. For the Gospel is a solitary and
a singular religion, against which we must never
presume to judge by the laws which are deduced
only from our experience in the common occasions
of life.
I should much regret the logical and didactic
statements into which I have been thus compelled
to enter, did I not hope that they might have
a tendency to remove that confusion of the under-
standing (for few, I should presume, have ever
found their understandings satisfied with the
reasonings of Hume, when applied to the Gospel
miracles) which almost every one must have felt
when rising from the perusal of his loose and
unconnected Essay; and did I not think that
there are some useful and important fruits to be
gathered even in this wilderness of sophistry.
For what shall we say of those who have thus
laboured to cast a stumbling-block in the way of
every one that would lay hold on Christ ? Shall
we judge of the motives of their conduct by its
Led. 4,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 95
tendency, and say that as it was their endeavour,
so it was their hope, to obliterate the remembrance
of God's Son from the earth, and blot out his words
of mercy to mankind ? Or shall we not rather
call to mind the words of the Lord Jesus which
he spake, saying, " Judge not, that ye be not
judged," and acquiesce in the milder censure of
the text by supposing that they deceived others,
because they were themselves deceived ? Strange
indeed it may appear that, upon any subject, the
cloud of error should cast its delusive darkness
over minds like theirs, into which God in his
mercy had poured a double portion of the spirit
of understanding. Yet it is vain, and happily it
is needless, to deny that they, like many other
unbelievers, were men of comprehensive genius
and a mighty mind. But it is neither the strength
nor the acuteness, it is the direction of the under-
standing which alone can secure us from perver-
sion or error. God gives us our faculties, but
leaves their use or abuse to our own responsibility
and care. The resistless mightiness of Samson's
frame forms the reverential wonder of our child-
hood, and the belief and meditation of our riper
years. "We know that such mightiness was given
him for purposes of holiness, to impress the terror
of God's name on the enemies of God's people,
and to bless both himself and others by the lawful
exertion of his power. We know all this ; but we
96 HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect. 4.
know also that the end corresponded not with the
intention. Sold by his own fault and folly into the
hands of a woman, and brought into captivity
under those he was intended to subdue, he remem-
bered with sorrow the waste and perversion of
his wondrous gifts, and grasping the pillars of
Dagon's house with the yet terrible power of his
enfeebled arms, shook the fabric from the foun-
dations on which it rested, and was buried in the
ruins which his own strength had made. What is
there in the mind to preserve it from the same
misguided exercise of its power? Is the spirit of
a man relieved from the dangers to which his body
is subject, and is the freedom of the agent to abuse
his powers, suspended when applied to his intellec-
tual endowments ? The history of human opinions
upon every science should teach us the idleness
of such an expectation, and convince us that there
is no subject of inquiry, however clear and incon-
trovertible in itself, into which the pride and
prejudices of the heart will not intrude to disturb
the judgment, and teach it to hold fast to that
which is manifestly erroneous and confessedly evil.
If there be any sphere of investigation in which
we might hope that the vanity and passions of
mortality would cease to operate, it is in those
questions of pure and abstract science which are
capable of strict and mathematical demonstration.
Yet even here we find that the force of the most
Lect. 4] HUISEAN LECTUJIES, 1820. 97
undeniable truth has been sometimes unable to
prevail over the perverseness of a powerful and
reasoning mind. It is a curious and important
fact in the history of the philosophic world, that
Hobbes, one of the most ingenious of those who
have lifted up their voices against the Lord of
life, maintained his mathematical as well as reli-
gious errors, errors in which he was condemned
and deserted by all, with a fruitless obstinacy and
in the face of repeated defeat. It is not then the
mere strength of a cause which can repel, nor is
it its weakness alone which invites the attacks of
adversaries. A thousand unseen springs are in
operation to pervert the judgment and mislead the
heart in every case, but more especially in the
consideration of the truth of the Christian creed,
which is so holy in its precepts as to arm against
its purity ahost of evil inclinations, and so humbling
in its doctrines as to make the pride of human
reason its natural enemy. In many of those who
have laboured in the defence of infidelity we may
distinctly trace the operation of this cause of enmity
to our holy faith. In the impure imagination of Gib-
bon, unable to restrain its pruriency even amidst the
learned researches of the historian; in the sensual
Confessions of Rousseau, and the degrading blas-
phemies and vices of Paine, we may easily discri j
minate the origin of doubt or disbelief. The word
of God was against them, and therefore they were
H
98 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
against the word of God. But there are many
upon whose ruling passion we are not able to lay
our finger, and thus point out the principle of
error. Ignorant of the windings of the human
heart, we must leave the scrutiny of such men's
motives to Him who is the Searcher of hearts, and
their condemnation to. the Judge of all, satisfied
with the comfort of being persuaded that the claims
of Christianity for our reception and reverence,
stand unaffected by the number and nature of her
enemies. Conscious, then, of the manifold infirm-
ities which beset the understandings and affec-
tions of men, let us remember the double duty we
owe to others and ourselves to others, in lament-
ing that so many of those who might have been,
who perhaps still are, amongst the brightest orna-
ments of the human race, should have sullied their
glory by the sin of unbelief and to ourselves,
by praying that God would direct us aright in the
exercise of our own faculties, and preserve us
alike from the guilt of deceiving and the danger
of being deceived.
DISCOURSE V.
JOHN, chap. v. er, 39.
" But I have a greater witness than that of John, for the
works which the Father hath given me to Jinish, the
same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the
Father hath sent me."
THE Jews sent unto John, and he bare witness
to the truth. He pointed to Jesus as the pro-
mised Messiah. We turn to the pages of the
New Testament, and there find the Apostles and
the Evangelists bearing witness to the same.
But Jesus hath a greater witness than any of
these, in the works which the Father had given
him to finish. His pretensions are, in part at
least, grounded upon the wonders he performed,
and, so far, therefore, are to be tried by an
examination into their nature and effects. These
works the Jews had an opportunity of viewing
with their own eyes and in their own persons,
and were consequently capable, from their own
H 2
100 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect, &
individual experience, of at once deciding for
themselves as to the propriety or impropriety of
our Saviour's appeal to his miracles. Christians
and men of later ages, on the other hand, have
only an opportunity of learning their nature and
number from J;he testimony of the first disciples,
and, of course, the credit due to those disciples
becomes a previous question, which it is abso-
lutely necessary to our faith to determine. For,
if they be liars, both your hope and our preaching
are in vain. If the things to which the Evan-
gelists have borne record be not true, our
assurance of salvation rests only upon the airy
basis of conjecture and uncertainty. When once,
however, we have become convinced of the
credibility of their testimony, as we must un-
deniably be by the various arguments which I
laid before you in my two last Discourses ; when
once the truth of the facts detailed in the Gospel
has been admitted, we, who are here assembled,
are as capable, as any men in any age, of sitting
in judgment upon the great controversy, and
determining whether the pretensions are justified
by the actions of Jesus ; whether he was really
that Prophet "that should come, or we are to
look for another ;" whether we have already been
freed from the dominion of sin and the powers of
darkness, or are still liable to the sentence of
heavenly condemnation, and must look for
Lect. 8.1 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 101
redemption, only through the merits of a greater
and more worthy Saviour.
But further, it is extremely necessary, not
only to be assured of the reality, but also to dis-
tinguish with accuracy that particular portion of
the whole burthen of Christianity, which the
miracles of our Lord, when considered simply as
miracles, were intended and calculated to bear ;
neither attributing too much nor too little to their
power not too much, by maintaining them to
be alone sufficient to convince us that " Jesus was
the Christ" not too little, in excluding them
from any influence at all, and attributing every
thing either to the prophecies or the doctrines of
Scripture. To point out this relative importance
of our Saviour's works, shall, therefore, be the
object of the present Discourse; and may God
Almighty bless its weakness.
Under the character of the Messiah, as ap-
plied to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary, are
comprehended these two particulars ; first, that
he was a prophet, and secondly, that he was
the prophet ; first, that he was a prophet sent
from God, and secondly, that he was that special
and predicted prophet, whose coming had been
promised in the law, and whose doctrines and
actions, whose sufferings and circumstances,
10& HULSEAN LECTUBES, 18&0. [Led. 5.
the holy men of old had so accurately de-
scribed.
For a proof of the former of these propo-
sitions that he was a PROPHET sent from God
our Saviour refers, in the words of my text,
to a consideration of the works which the Father
had given him to accomplish. "The same
works that I do," says he, " bear witness of me
that the Father hath sent me," Nor is this a
solitary instance. He uses the same argument
upon a variety of occasions and in numerous
other passages. Take the following as an ex-
ample. When the Jews, exasperated by his
repeated and explicit claims to a divine com-
mission, took up stones to cast at him, for what
they conceived to be his blasphemy, in making
himself the Son of God, and therefore equal with
God, the only way in which he attempted to
defend himself was by a recapitulation of what
he had done. " If I do not the works of my
Father, believe me not; but if I do -though ye
believe not me^believe the works."* Such also
appears to have been the general idea prevalent
among the Jews. For when Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews, and one, who, as a Pharisee and
a teacher in Israel, was, of course, intimately
acquainted with the doctrines of his church and
* John x< 37, 38i
Ltd. 5.] HiJLSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
the opinions of his countrymen, came to Jesus
by night, he said unto him, " Rabbi, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God ; because
no man can do the miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him."* Lastly, we find the
Apostles, in justification of their faith, every
where preaching Jesus of Nazareth, as "a man ap-
proved of God, by miracles, and signs, and wonders,
which he did in the presence of all the people."
So much I have said, to shew the sense
which our Saviour and the sacred writers them-
selves entertained of the proper application and
power of miracles in the establishment of the
Christian religion. They held them to be proofs
of the divine authority of Jesus ; that he was
a prophet commissioned and approved by God.
And so much may serve, at the same time, to
mark the flagrant ignorance or incorrectness of
Rousseau, when he asserts, that Jesus laid the
Whole stress of. his divine authority upon the
doctrines which he preached, and never referred
to the wonders which he wrought, as the signs
and evidences of his being a heavenly Messenger;
but wrought them only from motives of general
benevolence to the afflicted, or of particular kind-
ness to his friends. Tis true, that when, in the
* John iii, 2, f Acts ii, 22.
104 HtiLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Zee*. 5
Gospel " a wicked and adulterous generation
seeketh a sign," we read, in the answer of
our Lord, that " no sign shall be given unto
them."* But why? Because they were " a
wicked and adulterous generation," and threw
the tempting question in his way, with notions
as sensual, and from motives as unrighteous as
themselves. Therefore did he refuse to gratify
their request, lest he might seem to countenance
their unreasonable desires, or give currency to
their erroneous opinions upon his character, as a
temporal prince. But when the Baptist, with
humbler and correcter views, represented his
natural difficulties, without presumptuously pre-
scribing the mode of their solution, Jesus both
willingly wrought and specially referred to his
miracles. " In that same hour, he cured many
of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits j
and unto many that were blind he gave sight."
Then answering, he said unto them, " Go your
way, and tell John what things ye have seen and
heard." But it is needless to enter into any
further multiplication of testimonies upon a point
SQ clear. Let us now pass on to the more
arduous and important task of demonstrating, by
an inquiry into the merits and tendency of our
Saviour's works, that the opinion he held upon
*, Matt. xii. 30,
lect. S.I HULSEAH LECTURES, 1820.
their efficacy was true, that they do indeed
establish the very thing of which they are brought
forward as proofs, and confirm, beyond the reach
of controversy, that Jesus was one of the mes-
sengers of the God of heaven.
In the first place, then, the works of our
Saviour were works of wonder, widely different,
and far superior to those which the uniform expe-
rience of the world has taught us to consider as
lying within the range of those powers which
belong to uninspired and unassisted men. In the
second place, they were appealed to, by our
Saviour, in support of a particular system of
doctrines and precepts. They are consequently
possessed of all those qualifications and attri-
butes which are required in order to prove, that
he was both aided and approved by some Being
superior to man.
In the creation-and preservation of the world
in the voice which first called forth matter into
existence from the barren regions of infinite
space in the hand which formed that matter
into this earthly frame upon which we live, then
clothed it with beauties, and filled it with the
various orders of animate and inanimate objects ;
in all these things we perceive something more
than the feebleness of a human voice, or of a
106 HtfLSEAN LECTURE 18&0. [Led. &.
human hand, and no one has ever yet seriously
directed his views to the works of nature, without
having learnt to confess that they are the Works
of God* As therefore in the revolution of years,
in the recurrence of seasons, and the constant
and unvaried succession of day and night, we
acknowledge the traces of a great eternal, un-
derstanding God ; so Were the regularity of that
system to be broken, were night to take the place
of day, the sun to be darkened in his course, or
the moon to be turned into blood, we should all
fall down with trembling before the terrors of the
Lord* and immediately perceive that such things
could be produced only by the immediate opera-
tion, or the tacit permission of that Infinite
Power, without whose permission or operation,
nothing can either be changed or established.
Exactly of this character were the wonderful
works of our Saviour. The usual course of
things is, that men should live, suffer disease,
then die and moulder into dust ; and it is not
more impossible for the feeble and unassisted
efforts of man to create a new system of worlds
or a new order of beings, than it is to recal the
spirit which has once returned unto the God
that gave it. Yet did our Saviour recal those
spirits by the simple authority of his word. In
the beginning of the creation the Almighty said,
lect. 5j HtTLSEAN LECTUBES, 1820* 107
" Let the earth be," and the earth was. lii the
beginning of the Gospel, Christ said, " Awake
thoti that sleepest," and he that sleeped in death
awoke. Again, the cure of diseases is usually
preceded by the application of those remedies
whose general consequences have been long and
Carefully observed. Yet were the healings of
our Saviour preceded only by circumstances of all
Others apparently the most inadequate, by the
mere energy of his voice, or the mere application
of his touch ; and whilst the restoration to health,
under the mildest maladies, and with the most
skilful treatment, is commonly slow and progres-
sive, and many times uncertain and incomplete,
it was, in the instances before us, almost univer-
sally immediate and perfect. Thus in all that
the Lord did there was ever something remark-
able, ever something above the reach of human
reason and of mortal strength. Since, then, the
wisdom of Providence has ordained and con-
tinued an order of things, which the unassisted
Weakness of man is evidently unable to alter, the
works of Christ being different from that order,
must be ascribed to the co-operating influence of
some intelligent Being who is much more power-
ful than the sons of Adam. For, as he, who was
restored to sight, forcibly observed, " since the
world began was it not heard that any man
opened the eyes of one that was born blind/'
108 HTJLSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect. 5.
The uniform experience of the world is not to be
urged against the credibility of the fact itself,
but against the notion of that fact being pro-
duced by the efforts of an unaided man.
But we should -be far from justifying in its
entire extent the conclusion which our Saviour
deduced from his miracles, did we stop short in
our inquiries here. There are a variety of the
more unusual operations in nature, which are far
beyond the ability of human wisdom and of human
exertion to accomplish, and which must therefore
have some agent different from man ; yet these
are never considered as conferring any divine au-
thority upon those doctrines which may happen
to be preached in the countries and at the time
in which they take place. They are regarded
as accidental concurrences, rather than as de-
signed coincidences. We must prove, therefore,
that the works of Christ are not only visible
demonstrations of the interference, but positive
marks also of the approbation of some superior
Being. That this is really the case is, however,
sufficiently plain. The interference, when ap-
plied to the miracles of the Gospel, implies, of
necessity, the approbation of that superior Being
by whose finger they were wrought. For our
Saviour not only worked such wonders as would
bear the very strictest examination, but he worked
Lect. &] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820J 109
them also in defence of his claims to a particular
character, and in support of a religion which he
declared to be sanctioned and revealed by Heaven
as best suited to the fallen wretchedness of man.
He worked them to confirm the faith of his fol-
lowers. He pointed to them as the signs and seals
of his commission, and as signs and seals they
never failed to follow his appeal to them. He
never called but the spirits obeyed. He never
spake, but the deaf and the dead heard. He
never touched, but diseases fled, the blind saw,
the lame leaped, and the lepers were cleansed.
But it is most unnatural to suppose that any one
would support a system in opposition to his most
favourite wishes, contrary to his best interests,
and to the inevitable ruin of his own kingdom.
Had not the cause, therefore, in which our Lord
was engaged, been approved by that Being by
whom he was honoured with the testimony of
miracles, these things would not have .been so.
His word would -not always have been with
power. There would have been a point at which
his enchantments, like those of the magicians
in .Egypt, would have stopped ; and he would
frequently, like other impostors, in his own days,
and under similar circumstances, have been unable
to perform what he had promised, and thus be-
come an object of hatred and contempt to his
followers, instead of a stone of stumbling and
110 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1880, [Led 5.
a rock of offence to his enemies, In all that he
did, therefore, our Saviour must have been both
assisted and favoured, cherished and beloved, by
some superior Being, and the only re.maining
question in this stage of the argument is, whe-
ther it was> God or Satan, an Angel of light or
a Spirit of darkness, which thus bare witness to
his doctrines.
This, however, is a point most easy to be de-
cided ; Christ himself having furnished us with
an observation upon the subject, which nothing
but the most hardened infidelity can resist. I
speak this, of course, as a believer in the Gospel :
but, abstracted from its authority, the argument
itself would appear to be irresistible. Our Lord
had been inwardly accused by the Pharisees of
casting out devils, by Beelzebub, the prince of the
devils. But " Jesus knew their thoughts, and
said unto them, Every kingdom, divided against
itself is brought to desolation ; and every city or
house divided against itself shall not stand. And
if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against
himself, how shall then his kingdom stand ?" *
Admitting then the possibility of evil spirits being
permitted by the Almighty to work real miracles
for the delusion of mankind (for it is by his per-
mission only that they can do any thing, and if
" ' - * Matt. xii. 25. ........
JLtct.5,'] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. Ill
the miracles be not wrought for the delusion of
mankind, it is a matter of little consequence by
whom they are wrought), still the nature of the
Gospel miracles exonerates them from every sus^
picion of being derived from such a source, or
directed to such an end. They are all of them
works of mercy as well as wonder, benevolent in
their motives and beneficial in their effects ; tend-
ing in every instance to relieve or remove the mi-
series of man. The deserted horrors of demoniacal
madness, the agonies of convulsion, the foam of
epilepsy, the burnings of fever, the fallings of
faintness, and the corruption of death ; the tears
of the widow, the afflictions of the father, the
speechlessness of the dumb, the sightlessness of
the blind, and the helplessness of the decrepit from
their mother's womb all the sad destinies of
man experienced, in their turn, from the Son of
Mary, an alleviation of their woes. The mira-
cles of Jesus were the tenderest mercies of the
most tender and compassionate of all human
beings (that is a testimony borne to him even by
his adversaries), who mightily humbled himself to
lift up the heavy hand of suffering from them
that were bowed down under their griefs, and, in
more than one sense, took upon his own shoulders
the burthen of our sorrows and the load of our
infirmities. Search as strictly as you will, and
you will find but two instances recorded in the
11& HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820* [Lect. S,
New Testament the blasting of the fig-tree and
the transferring of the legion of devils into the
herd of swine which bear even the appearance
of being inconsistent with the most perfect purity
and goodness ; and in both of these the moral
or the doctrinal lesson imprinted upon the minds
of men in all ages of the world, is infinitely more
than a sufficient balance for any individual loss
which might be sustained. How then can we sup-
pose that Satan, who is described to us in the
blackest characters, as going about and seeking
whom he may devour (and such must be the
moral depravity of his occupation, if he have the
power so to do) that he who was a murderer
from the beginning, should yet become the will-
ing instrument of communicating so many bless-
ings to the creatures of that God whose holiness
he hates, and at whose power he trembles. How
should he contribute to break the head of the
serpent, when he must have known that in return
he would be permitted only to bruise the heel
of his destroyer to gain a few victims for the
everlasting burnings of remorse, and a few un-
believing captives for the chains of intellectual
darkness, at the expense of his own horrible and
eternal ruin ?
Suppose, however, for a moment, that the devil,
as a liar, should wish by real and beneficent
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 113
miracles to delude mankind, still, as the father of
lies, he would never set the seal of his power to
truth never become the author of a system of
righteousness, or attempt to establish a religion
which would inevitably lead its followers to the
sources of their best and only real happiness, even
on earth. Yet such, whether a delusion or not,
is the religion of the Gospel a religion, which
unites in itself and reflects back to the generations
of men, all the scattered rays of moral wisdom ;
which brings into one view the various precepts
of piety and goodness, defines, whilst it extends,
the limits of our duty, and rejecting all that is
false, embraces all that is just, in the writings of
every age and nation since the world began.
Christianity too is the only religion which com-
municates any satisfactory remedy for the misery
of a sinner's despair, by establishing in his heart
a well-grounded assurance of his Maker's mercy
and his Maker's pardon for the past ; whilst it
strictly enjoins him at the same time to be careful
of his future life, to forgive his enemies in return,
and, carrying the principle of purity and caution
into the minutest actions of his being, to cleanse
his very thoughts from pollution, and to abstain,
as he fears the judgment of God, from every idle
word and every inconsiderate expression. We
cannot, therefore, by any inconsistency, reconcile
it to reason, that an evil spirit, whose mouth is full
i
114 HULBEAV LECTURES, 1820. [Lect* 5.
of cursing and bitterness, should yet be content
to teach the words of humility, and holiness, and
benevolence unless, indeed, like the prophet
Balaam, with the strongest desire of cursing in
his heart, his wishes and his works had been
turned into a blessing upon Israel.
But, be the religion we profess what it may,
the moral character of the meek, the holy, the
harmless, the undented Jesus could never be a fit
or natural favourite with the enemy of mankind.
To become the proper instrument of the powers
of hell, requires all those qualities which so often
mark the hero of women's imaginations, and the
conqueror of the liberties of men, active courage
and a daring and relentless ambition. With
neither of these qualities, however, do we meet in
the evangelical picture of the awful loveliness of
our Saviour's mind. In fortitude, indeed, in passive
courage, in bearing', and in forbearing, he was
most exemplary ; but his only ambition was the
desire of doing what we may be convinced, by
independent reasoning upon natural principles,
was the will of his Heavenly Father. To that
Heavenly Father, therefore, we must look for the
origin of the superior power by which he was
supported and approved. For we have not been
uselessly engaged in showing the absurdity of
that opinion which refers the miracles of our Lord
Led, ] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 115
to the voluntary agency and co-operation of some
wicked spirit. The world may be divided between
two masters, the Lords of mental light and dark-
ness, and of moral good and evil ; and whoever
can be fairly proved not to be the disciple of the
one, may be safely concluded to be the friend of
the other,
The result of the whole, then, is this. The
many wonderful works which Jesus performed
were visible demonstrations that he was aided and
favoured by some superior power, whilst the
merciful nature and benevolent tendency of his
works, as plainly declare that superior power to
have been of God. This is still further confirmed
to us by the mild and benevolent spirit of his religion,
and the bright and unsullied purity of his life.
He was, of course, fully justified in asserting,
" that the same works which he did bore witness
of him, that the father had sent him ;" for, except
the Father had been with him, as man he could
not have done such miracles.
As yet we have only shewn that Jesus was
a prophet sent from God. That he was the
Prophet, the Messiah of the scriptures, is a pro-
position which is almost untouched, and must be
made to rest upon a different foundation, in a
future discourse. In the mean time, however, and,
i 2
116 HCLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
before I insist upon those practical considerations
which are furnished by the argument, even in its
present imperfect state, I would just notice the
falsehood of another of the assertions, and the
futility of another of the reasonings, of Rousseau.
>
In a former Discourse I observed that the
wonderful works of our Saviour have been so
strongly testified by the Evangelists as to leave no
possible doubt with regard to their actual occur-
rence ; so that if we will hesitate at all, we can
hesitate only upon the special interposition of the
arm of the Almighty for their production. It is
upon this very ground that the citizen of Geneva
has taken up the question, and reasoned against
the certainty of the Christian miracles. Amiracle
he defines to be an exception to the laws of nature.
The reality of a miracle, therefore, he holds it
impossible for man to ascertain, because since
man cannot possibly ascertain what the laws of
nature are, so neither can he pretend to determine
whether and when there has been a deviation from
those laws. A savage would count that to be
a w miracle which a philosopher would perceive to
be no more than the necessary result of certain
operations in nature, and according to certain
laws. Hence a philosopher might, in an unen-
lightened nation, have the power to prove himself
to be a prophet of God, though preaching only the
Lect. 5.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 117
wise deductions of his own holy thoughts, and con-
firming them only through the performance of some
extraordinary experiments by his scientific skill.
The fallacy lies in the generality of this reason-
ing. Be it that we know not universally what the
laws of nature are ; yet this we do know, that
there are certain events so different from the usual
results of the laws of nature, when applied only by
the knowledge or power of man, that we may
affirm, as far as we can affirm any thing, that those
events are not the result of those laws, when so
applied. In such cases we may safely infer, that
there has been the special interference of superior
powers, and in such a description we must ne-
cessarily include the miracles of the Gospel, the
giving of sight unto the blind by a touch, and the
giving of feet unto the lame by a word.
Again : it may be perfectly true that, if the
agent of a wonderful work be either superior in
power or in. knowledge to ourselves, we cannot
clearly determine, in every instance, whether the
wonders he has performed be the result of a mi-
raculous or philosophical combination of causes.
A miracle, therefore, that it may become a satis-
factory proof of the religion for which it is wrought,
must be distinctly perceived to have been above
the natural power and knowledge of the agent to
118 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [leci. 6,
produce. And such were the miracles of Jesus.
And herein lieth the wisdom of God, in making
him to be born in a situation of life, where he
could learn none of the secrets of science, and to
have selected his companions and witnesses from
amongst those of a like lowly rank and informa-
tion with himself, men who were at the same time
the most capable of judging of his powers, and
the most incapable of assisting him in any deceit.
Thou art inexcusable, then, O man, whosoever
thou art, that nearest the things that are written
in the Gospel, and believest not in the heavenly
authority of him by whom they were propounded.
Still more inexcusable art thou, O man, that
hearest and believest the things that are written in
the Gospel, and doest not according thereto. For
how can we dare, or even desire to disobey those
precepts which bear upon them the mark and stamp
of divinity, which have been sanctioned by the
signs of divine power, and the seal of divine
approbation? The Pharisees had indeed an
opportunity of becoming spectators of those evi-
dences of our Saviour's mission, of which we can
only read in the testimony of his followers ; and
upon this difference, we may, perhaps, presume
to lay the grounds of our defence. We may
think that had we seen the blessed Jesus with bur
bodily eyes ; had he preached in our streets and
Lect. 5.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 119
performed his wonders upon our children, as he
did upon those of Jerusalem, we should not have
turned away from the light, but at once have
become faithful and obedient disciples. But we
should remember that it is the certainty of the
Christian miracles, and not the means by which
we arrive at that certainty, which forms the sub-
stantial proof of the divinity of the Christian
religion, upon which divinity one of its principal
titles to our obedience rests. As, therefore, our
Saviour pronounced that it should be more toler-
able for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of
judgment, than for the faithless cities of Chorazin
and Bethsaida, so may we declare, that it shall be
more tolerable for the faithless cities of Chorazin
and Bethsaida, in that day, than for those faithful
Christians, in any age, or in any country, who
believe without being converted from the error of
their ways. The evidence of the senses is not
stronger, ought not to be more convincing, than
the evidence of the understanding. The eye of
the mind may see as clearly, and judge as correctly,
as the eye of the body; and if we repent not at
the preaching of the Apostles and Evangelists,
neither should we repent, though we should see
one raised from the dead. Suppose indeed one of
the very strongest of all possible cases. Suppose
that for the satisfaction of some half-wavering,
half-repentant sinner, who might have the pre-
120 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect, 5.
sumption to claim a particular interposition in his
favour, God should be pleased to interrupt the
order of his providence and give a sensible
demonstration of the indispensable necessity of
Gospel obedience. Suppose that this sacred
temple were.to be chosen by the Almighty as the
seat of his immediate presence that he should
appear in all the terrors of his power upon the
altar, and there utter in a voice of thunder from
the clouds of his glory and majesty, those awful
and affecting words of Scripture, " Jerusalem is
in adversity with her children. If ye repent not,
ye shall all likewise perish." Such a scene we
may think would leave an impression upon the
brain, that we should carry with us through age
unto the grave. All the fascinations of vice, we
may imagine, and all the vanities of the world
would vanish and fade away before the remem-
brance of its wonders ; and we should all become,
what we are called upon to be, devoted to the
service of man and our Maker; and we should all
study to reap all the benefits by fulfilling all the
conditions of the Gospel scheme of salvation. Oh,
my brethren, I beseech you not to form so flatter-
ing a judgment. Answer not even for your own
hearts, for the heart of man is deceitful above all
things; but turn to the Bible (I speak as to
believers), and there learn the wisdom by reading
the answer of experience. Such a scene has been
tect. .] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 121
represented before human eyes and upon the
theatre of the world. God did once virtually
appear in the splendor of his greatness. He
spake, from the Shechinah of his glory, to the
Israelites upon Mount Sinai, and they felt all that
men could and must feel upon such an occasion.
They were humbled by the greatness of their fear.
They trembled before the Lord their God. They
fell down before him, and besought him that he
would speak to them no more in his might, but
only through the mouth of his prophet Moses, to
whose words they vowed an entire and an ever-
lasting obedience. Yet how soon they forgot
their promises how soon the traces of the scene
faded from their imagination, their murmurings,
and sufferings, their crimes and punishments in
the wilderness too sufficiently and sadly declare.
It is a truth, that the proofs derived from the
senses are never of so lasting a nature as those
which apply to the understanding ; for whilst the
former dwindle away through forgetfulness, the
latter acquire newforce from time and examination.
And such are the proofs of the truth and divinity
of our religion, which leave us, therefore, no fair
excuse for disobedience to its precepts. The
things recorded in the Gospel speak to the mind
and to the heart. Let us then be thankful for
what we have and not be vainly or sinfully curious
about what we have not, and about what, perhaps,
188 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. (Zed. .
ought not to be granted to us. One day or other
we shall all behold the majesty of God, but it will
only be when the hour of our trial is over, when
the period for judgment is at hand, and we are
about to enter upon an eternity of happiness or
misery. Knowing then the terrors of the Lord,
and seeing that we have been timely called into
his vineyard, we have no justifiable cause for
standing wilfully idle. Whilst it is yet day,
therefore, let us be Christians in deed and in
truth ; for " the night cometh, when no man can
work/'
DISCOURSE VI.
2 TIM. chap. iii. vet\ 16.
" All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."
HAD the prophet Jesus, like the impostor Ma-
homet, retired to the caverns of some solitary
mountain, and meditating in secret upon the
sacred object of his ministry come forth with a
written Gospel for the instruction of mankind,
the evidence for Christianity would have assumed
a very different character from that which it now
bears, and have become much more simple*
though not more satisfactory, than it appears
under the present and more complicated cir-
cumstances of the case. Had our Saviour re-
corded with his own infallible pen the doctrines
of his holy religion and the transactions of his
benevolent life his merciful miracles and his
wonderful predictions ; and had he delivered the
original document to his disciples at his death,
124? HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led, 6.
as the fountain from which all their future
preaching was to be drawn, and the only oracle
to which they were to refer for an illustration of
the principles and a proof of the divine origin of
Christianity it would-, seem as if in that case
nothing more would have been requisite to
enable us to judge with certainty upon the truth
or falsehood of the pretensions of Jesus, than
this that the Apostles should have borne un-
equivocal testimony to the genuineness of the
book and the authenticity of its contents, and
confirmed that testimony by their sufferings and
death. For, in that case, if from the contents
of the book the author could be proved to have
been a prophet of God, the inspiration of the
book itself as the production of a prophet would
follow as a matter of course, and all its contents
become infallibly true. But it has pleased the
Almighty in his wisdom, that the information we
possess with regard to the actions and doctrines
of our Lord, should be transmitted down to
posterity in a manner which in its nature and
operation is altogether different from this. It is
now universally admitted that the divine Author
of our religion himself wrote nothing that
nothing concerning either his preaching or his
proceedings was written by others during his life,
and that those memorials which we possess and
revere as the veritable and sure relations of his
Zee*. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 125
immediate and constant followers, were not one
of them composed until a period of several years
had elapsed from the death of that individual
whose words and works they so minutely and
regularly detail. The change which this fact
makes in the proofs necessary to establish the
truth and divinity of the religion of the Gospel,
and the manner in which those necessary proofs
have been supplied, are what I shall now proceed
to lay before you, with a view of ultimately
bringing into notice the inspiration of the writers
of the New Testament. The several points I
shall consider in their order, are, the utility of
such inspiration, the manner in which its reality
may be demonstrated, and the period at which
such a demonstration should be introduced.
I. First of all, then, let us inquire into those
reasons which made it requisite that the Apostles
and Evangelists should be guided or superintended
by the influence of the divine Spirit in the com-
position of their works.
The leading and most wonderful features of
the life of Christ, and the general and most
important principles of his religion, are such as
could never have been obliterated from the tablets
of mortal memory. However weak the mind,
however young the spectator, however long his
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1880, [Zect. 6,
life, he must have ceased to be, or to be a man,
ere he could cease to muse upon the pre-
cepts, to repeat the works, and remember the
resurrection of his Lord, That Jesus had pro-
nounced himself to be the promised Messiah of
the Jews, he that had ears to hear must have
heard and could never forget. That in con-
firmation of these pretensions Jesus had wrought
many miracles, and none of a doubtful character
or an unholy tendency, he that had eyes to see
must have seen and perceived. That neither in
his private nor in his public life had his conduct
or discourses been distinguished by any thing but
an attention to the great ends of piety and
morality, he that had a heart to understand must
necessarily have comprehended ; and every fa-
culty of thought and recollection must have
perished, before those important circumstances
had lost their impression upon his mind. At
whatever period, therefore, of the lives of the
writers the several books of the New Testament
were composed, as the writers (this we have
already proved) were both credible witnesses
in point of character, and competent witnesses
in s point of knowledge, those books may be
fairly considered, when considered merely as
human testimony, merely as the testimony of
honest and observing men, to contain a faithful
outline and a correct general statement of the life
LecL 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. ISTf
and doctrines, the miracles and predictions of
Jesus.
But it so happens that the Gospels contain
a great deal more than the bare outline of the
proceedings and pretensions of our Lord. They
are not indeed to be looked upon as the full and
perfect relations of every accident which befel
him, and every incident in which he participated;
neither do they recount his discourses and doings
in an exact and undeviating order of chronology.
They expressly renounce their claims to be con-
sidered in this light, and tell us, that there are
many other signs and things which Jesus did,
and which are not written in their books. This
then is allowed, that the Gospels are not complete
histories of the founder of Christianity, and of all
and each of his works. But yet in the majority
of those instances in which they do enter upon
any of his deeds and sayings, they take it up in
detail. They deal frequently in mere general
expressions, but more usually relate whatever
they undertake to write upon, with minuteness
and accuracy of delineation, and with the addition
of all the various circumstances of time, of person,
and of place. Now these circumstances of time,
of person, and of place, are precisely those points
in which the human memory the earliest and
most commonly fails, nor can the best-trained
128 HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820, [Lect, 6.
understanding preserve for a series of years the
distinct recollection of all the concomitant circum-
stances of a multitude of different but resembling
o
facts. It would exceed the powers of memory
in the wisest of unassisted men thus for a series
of years to keep separate what was so much
alike ; and however frequently the particulars
might be repeated, yet would there be a con-
stant and unavoidable tendency, were it only
from the mere act of repetition, to mingle an4
confound those points in which the similarity wa^
strongest.. But the Apostles, instead of bein
the wisest of unassisted men, were altogether
undisciplined in the schools of philosophy and
learning. They were poor and uneducated
fishermen.. Whatever, therefore, may have been
their honesty and sincerity, and however strong
their memory, we cannot be justified in relying
upon all their details as absolutely and infallibly
correct, unless we can show that they wrote in
some measure under the [assisting influence of
divine inspiration; for we are ignorant of the
existence of any original and authentic document
from which they could copy, and they wrote too
long after the events which they relate,, to have
retained, if uninspired, so clear and circum-
stantial a remembrance. The Gospels, as mere
human compositions, may be reasoned upon as
generally and substantially true, but an absolute
Lect. 6,] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820.
and undeviating accuracy can spring only from
a source superior to the errors of mortality.
The first reason, then, for the inspiration of
the Apostles is to be derived from its utility in
confirming their infallibility as historians. A se-
cond may be drawn from its necessity in establish-
ing their character as the authorised interpreters
of ancient prophecy, and the authorised expound-
ers of the doctrines of Christianity.
" Know this first of all," says the Apostle
St. Peter,* " that no prophecy is of any private
interpretation ; for the prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God
spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost."
The will of man, therefore, and the mere critical
conclusions of private individuals, however plau-
sible, can never be exalted into an authorized
and infallible guide in the exposition or appli-
cation of any difficult and doubtful prediction.
Where the intention of the Holy Ghost has been
plainly revealed, where, as in the prefiguration of
Cyrus or of Josiah, the name and the actions to
which the prophecy refers are directly and dis-
tinctly pointed out in language such as prevails
in the common intercourse of life, there the
* 2 Pet. i. 20, 21.
K
130 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6,
human and unassisted understanding of the com-
mentator may be permitted to determine the mind
of the Spirit. But where the designation is inci-
dental and dark, it requires something more than
the deductions of unaided reason to stamp an in-
terpretation with the seal of an absolute authority
from which there is no appeal ; and we can only
be assured beyond the possibility of mistake, that
the will of God, as it is signified to us in the
obscurer and more ambiguous predictions of
holy Writ, has been correctly deduced, when the
interpretation as well as the words proceed from
a holy man of God ; or where the ambiguity and
obscurity are removed by the event. For, says
the Apostle St. Paul,* " as no man knoweth the
things of a man, save the Spirit of a man that is in
him, even so the things of God knoweth no man,
but the Spirit of God ;" and upon this ground
he claims expressly for himself the possession of
" the Spirit, which is of God ; that he might
know the things which are freely given unto us of
God." " God/' he declares, " hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit ; for the Spirit search-
eth all things, yea, the deep things of God ;" an
argument which may be applied alike to the deep
things of doctrine and the deep things of pro-
phecy, and bears equally upon the character of
* 1 Cor, ii. 1012.
Led. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, 131
the Apostles as infallible expounders of the prin-
ciples of the New, and authoritative interpreters
of the predictions of the Old, Testament. Nay, it
applies to them with more than common force,
when we reflect upon their unlearned character
as fishermen, and their perverted and erroneous
opinions as Jews. Under such circumstances,
their authority as mere men in the interpretations
of prophecy, and the explication of doctrine falls
too low to permit any one to embrace their creed
merely upon the strength of their own uncon-
firmed and uninspired assertions. The demon-
strations of power, and the possession of the Spirit,
are what alone can justify an entire and unre-
served deference to their declarations.
2. From the preceding observations it appears
that the proper period for introducing a proof of
the inspiration of the Apostles into a systematic
inquiry into the truth of Christianity, is, when any
question arises which involves, as a previously
established fact, their unerring and universal
accuracy as historians, or their absolute and
infallible authority as teachers, both of which
depend upon their being in possession of the
Spirit. Our object therefore must be, to deter-
mine what is the first branch of Christian evidence
which involves in its establishment these two
important considerations.
K2
132 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [led. 6.
Now, it is evident, that the character of our
Saviour's miracles, the tendency of his doctrines,
and the colour of his life, when regarded in a
moral and physical point of view, are what must
decide upon the justice of his claims to be ad-
mitted as a prophet ; as one of those to whom the
counsels of the Almighty upon the duties and
doctrines of man were communicated. If the mi-
racles he performed were beyond the strength
of any human arm, if his doctrines were conducive
at once to the peace and holiness of the world,
and if his life corresponded in all its parts with
the majesty of his works and the purity of his
words, then may we safely rank him amongst the
prophets of the Most High : and that these things
were so, we may be sufficiently assured by the
testimony of the Evangelists, when considered only
as human and uninspired witnesses, giving their
evidence with integrity and to the best of their
recollection. For we cannot but perceive from
their own account of their feelings and frequent
doubts, that they looked with such a careful and
jealous eye upon all the proceedings of our Lord,
that had any thing inconsistent with the interests
of piety or morality escaped his lips, or had his
performances fallen short of his promises or their
expectations, they would have all forsaken him
and fled, with the same readiness with which
they afterwards deserted his cause, when shocked
Lcct. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 133
by what appeared to them to be the scandal of
his crucifixion and death. That they have not
recorded any thing which offended their moral
feelings, nor any miracle which struck them as
equivocal or improper, is therefore a satisfactory
proof that none such ever occurred ; and when
they declare that their Master was holy, harm-
less, tmdefiled, and separate from sinners ; and
that he healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, and
raised the dead, we are bound implicitly to acqui-
esce in those general declarations, because they
are points which their integrity would never fal-
sify and their memory could never forget. From
the substantial truths of the Gospels, therefore,
though considered only as human compositions,
and though written long after the events which
they record, we may clearly establish the divine
commission of Jesus to reveal the will of God to
man, without insisting upon their universal cor-
rectness in every circumstance. j
But when, from an endeavour to demonstrate
that Jesus was a prophet of God, we proceed to
shew that he was also the predicted prophet of
the older covenant, it is plain that we must justify
our opinion by a comparison of all the actions and
events of his life, with the prophecies which
describe the character of the Messiah ; and it is
equally plain that for this purpose we require
134 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
something more than a general acquaintance with
his history. The most circumstantial and accu-
rate accounts are necessary before we can even
institute the comparison, and it seems highly
advantageous, if not essential, to the certainty of
our conclusion, that the agreement between the
predictions and their fulfilment should, in every
difficult and doubtful case, be confirmed to us by
the authority of those who could not possibly be
deceived. Now this accuracy and this authority,
as we have already declared, can proceed only
from the correcting and enlightening influence of
the Spirit of God. It would appear, therefore, to
be particularly expedient, if not absolutely neces-
sary to the firmness of our reasoning, that we
shquld enter upon the proof of the inspiration of
the Apostles before we attempt to shew that the
prophet Jesus was the Messiah of the Jews.
3. The proper manner in which the inspiration
of the Apostles may be demonstrated is the next
point of our inquiry, and the fact of their being
thus supernaturally assisted may be established
from various sources, but first from the promises
of Jesus himself.
Of all the communications which are made to
us by another, those usually leave the strongest
and most lasting impression upon the mind, which
Lect. 6,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 135
relate personally to ourselves. Those more espe-
cially are retained in the memory which contain
some promise of future benefit ; but the deepest
and longest recollection is attached to such pro-
mises as are intended to relieve us from some
present disadvantage, without specifying the pre-
cise nature of the relief to be afforded. In this
latter case the uncertainty of what we have to
expect is added to the anxiety for the fulfilment,
and we retain not only the substance, but the
very words which have been spoken. Such were
the promises of the Spirit by which our Saviour
endeavoured with such earnest and affectionate
frequency to prepare the minds of his followers
for the day of affliction in which he himself should
be taken away. I will not leave you comfortless,
were the words of his consolation, but I will pray
the Father, and he will send you another Com-
forter, even the Spirit of truth. " He will lead
you into all truth," and " teach you all things'*
requisite for your success in the business of
propagating the Gospel. He shall " bring all
things to your remembrance whatsoever I have
said unto you," and " abide with you for ever,"
thus enabling you, " to bear witness, because you
have been with me from the beginning." * The
precise import of these expressions the Apostles
did undoubtedly not at the moment understand,
* John xiv. 16,18,26.
136 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6,
nor were they fully aware of their import until
their meaning was completely developed by the
cross and the cloven tongues of fire. But this
very obscurity would serve only the more forcibly
to fix the words in their memory ; whilst at the
same time it was impossible for them not to
gather from the friendly solemnity of the lan-
guage, both the fear of some impending calamity
and the hope of some future assistance. The testi-
mony, therefore, of the Apostles merely as men of
fidelity and truth, is sufficient to assure us that
these declarations with regard to the Spirit were
made to them by Jesus, and the very same testi-
mony, as we have already shewn, is sufficient also
to convince us that Jesus was a prophet of God.
The very fact, therefore, that these promises of
inspiration were made by Jesus, is a proof that
such inspiration was actually communicated to the
Apostles. For he was a prophet, and never yet
did the word of a divine prophet fail in the due
accomplishment of its purpose.
We have another proof of the inspiration of
the Apostles, in those various assertions that
they were so inspired which are still to be
found in their writings. They declare many
things in the religion which they teach, to have
been revealed to them by the Spirit, " and I
think also that I have the Spirit of God," says
Lect. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 187
St. Paul.* So far, therefore, as the declarations
of honest men who confirmed their sincerity by
their sufferings and death are to be admitted as
true, and so far as it is impossible for the Apostles
to have been deceived with regard to their posses-
sion of spiritual aid, so far also are we bound to
believe them upon this point, and to admit, upon
the ground of their own testimony alone, that
they were really and divinely assisted in propa-
gating the religion they had embraced.
This inspiration of the Apostles is still farther
confirmed by the testimony which was borne by
the early Christians to their possession of miracu-
lous powers, and by the appeal which they them-
selves have made to the exercise of such powers,
as the infallible evidences of the fidelity of their
statements, and the authority of their teaching
an appeal which, if false, it would have been
something more than idle to have made, when
the meanest individual had the power of contra-
dicting its truth.
But the most striking, and what, in these later
generations, we are apt, perhaps not unjustly, to
consider as the most satisfactory proof of the in-
spiration of the Apostles of our Lord, is, the fulfil-
ment of those various predictions which stand in
* 1 Cor, vii, 40,
138 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
the genuine pages of their writings, and which
distinctly mark them out as belonging to the
number of those " holy men of God, who spake
as they were moved by the holy Ghost."
" It must needs be that offences come, but woe
be to that man by whom the offence cometh, 3 '*
said our Saviour, at once to warn and to prepare
his disciples against the future difficulties and
corruptions of Christianity; and we shall find,
upon examining into the subject of the Apostolic
prophecies, that they are almost exclusively occu-
pied in expounding this comprehensive foreboding,
and giving a more precise and minute prefigu-
ration of those sufferings and errors of Christians,
of which their Master had given no more than
a general intimation. Listen to the awful trumpets
and break the sacred seals of the Revelation of
St. John, and you will hear, no doubt, many sounds
that fall with no distinct impression upon the ear,
and read many a line whose sublime obscurity the
understanding cannot penetrate. Darkness is
upon the face of the prophetic creation, and the
Spirit of God must move, ere it can be broken and
dispersed, and we must either wait for some in-
spired interpreter to unravel its intricacy, or sit
down in contented expectation for that period of
blessedness in which the difficulties of Christianity
* Matt, xviii, 7.
iec.6,j HULSEAN LECTDIIES, 1820. 139
shall be swallowed up in the glory of the second
coming of our Lord, as the seeming inconsisten-
cies of the Jewish scheme were illuminated by the
brightness of his first. Yet, amidst all the thick
darkness that surrounds the general mass of these
revelations, there is still light enough upon a few
of its elements to enable, and almost compel the
understanding, to recognize their form and dis-
tinguish their nature. The sufferings of the early
Saints, the double errors of Asia and of Europe,
the locusts of Arabia and the spiritual fornication
of Rome, are described to the life, and our eyes
must be shut up in wilful blindness, and our ears
be closed in a moral deafness to the prophet's
voice, ere we can refuse to acknowledge that the
apostacy of the East and the tyranny and idolatry
of the West, have been as surely prefigured in the
pages of God's books, as their effects have been
fearfully felt in the annals of man's history. These
things have been, and have been foretold, and in
the same writing it is written, that for all these
things God will bring the nations into judgment,
and send out the angels of his anger into the
earth, as a punishment for their infidelity, and their
corruption of the truth. We ask, then, whether the
vengeance of the Almighty hath not been abroad ?
Whether the first, or the second, or the third vial
be past, or whether they are still pouring out their
wrath, we may not be able to say ; but truly the
140 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
world hath tasted of much of the bitterness of
their contents. It hath drank deeply of blood,
and of fire, and of pains, and of sores, and of all the
plagues which God's servant proclaims against
God's enemies : and where we can thus identify
the general features of the scene, it matters little
whether we be able to measure its proportions or
no. Where we can trace the progress of the
prophetic but unfinished drama by these infallible
signs, it were idle to complain because we cannot
as yet perceive the connexion, and explain the
bearing of its mutual parts. It is the close of the
whole which alone can expound the great object
and scheme of the Almighty Framer, and we
must wait in patience for the last and con-
cluding act of triumph, to cast back a ray of its
own light and glory upon all the intricacy and
obscurity which has gone before.
Thus much have I said, to show how the spirit
of a prophet did rest upon that beloved Apostle,
who (if any comparison ought to be drawn) may
be said perhaps to have left us the most valuable
records of our Saviour's life. And now let us turn
our eyes upon the writings of the great historian
of the " man of sin."* Let us attend to his descrip-
tion of this son of perdition, as one who opposeth
and exalteth himself above all those powers and
* % Thess, ii, compared with I Tim. iv.
Lect. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 141
principalities of the world whom the flattery and
folly of man has called gods, and as sitting in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is a
god ; and, as the gods of the earth do lord it over
their brethren, so claiming for himself a spiritual
power and pre-eminence over God's heritage.
Hear him elucidating the manner of the working
of this " lawless one," and how he details his
efforts to attain this lofty and ungodly majesty,
as being accompanied with the "working of
Satan, and with all power and signs and wonders
of falsehood." Trace the minuteness with which
he enumerates the doctrines of those seducing
spirits who in the latter times were to turn many
from the faith, by " speaking lies in hypocrisy,
and forbidding to marry, and commanding to
abstain from meats." Meditate upon all these
things, compare them in all their parts, consider
them under all their accompanying circum-
stances, and then say whether you can look to
any other city, or any other power, than to the
faded splendor and the spiritual ruler of Rome
for their accomplishment. If there be any who
have ventured to doubt upon the certainty of the
application of these prophecies to Rome, it is only,
I believe, because some have been too anxious
to find her horrid form in every prophetic picture
which has been delineated by the Apostle's pen.
In their holy horror of the spiritual wickedness and
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. \Lect. 6.
usurpations of Rome, some have been led to hold
of her not only as the great, but the only Anti-
christ, and to behold her crimes alone in every
description of wickedness with which the Scrip-
tures abound, an extreme which has driven others
to deny her resemblance to any of the multiplied
portraits of error. An Antichrist she may be ; for
we are taught by the Apostle that there are many
Antichrists ; and in the looser interpretation of
the term, every Church and individual who main-
tains doctrines the tendency of which is to injure
the majesty of the Redeemer, may be regarded as
not unworthy of the name. Yet we are taught by
the same Apostle, that he only and truly is Anti-
christ, " who denieth the Father and the Son,''*
who violates the dignity of either, by denying
their existence or attributes ; and refuses to
acknowledge the intimacy of those mutual and
eternal relations, which result from their respec-
tive possession of the parental and filial character.
In this sense we are bound to confess that Rome
and her votaries do not fall under the grievous
condemnation denounced upon a renunciation of
the first principles of the Gospel . But whilst we
relieve her from this extremity of guilt, it would
seem difficult for a calm and reflecting mind not
to behold in the spiritual fornication of the mystic
Babylon, and the various deformities of the man
* 1 John ii. 22.
Led. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 143
of sin, the deeds and the decrees and the doc-
trines of the Papal power.
Thus have we examined the period and order
in which the several portions of the New Testa-
ment were composed, and shown the manner in
which that inspiration of the Apostolic writers,
upon which their authority and infallibility de-
pend, may be decisively proved. Why it should
have pleased the Almighty to adopt this peculiar
mode of recording the history and the doctrines
of our religion, it is neither necessary for us
to inquire, nor perhaps possible to determine.
We know that the proofs necessary for the
demonstration of the truth of our religion in this
more complicated method of proceeding, have
been fully supplied, and with this assurance
it is our duty to rest satisfied, without presump-
tuously ascribing motives to the Infinite Mind.
But there is one very important inference which
may be drawn from the history of the formation
of the New Testament, which it would be un-
wise, and is almost impossible for any one,
however thoughtless, to overlook. It is this, that
the lateness of the period, and the successive order
in which its several parts were composed, afford
a very strong presumption against their being the
work of impostors. To understand this the better,
it will be expedient to compare the origin of the
144< HULSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
Koran with that of the Gospels and Epistles, and
to show from the comparison, in what respects
the suspicion which rests upon the former is
altogether inapplicable to the latter. "When
a great part of the life of Mahomet had been
spent in preparatory meditation on the system he
was about to establish, its chapters were dealt out
slowly and separately during the long period of
three-and-twenty years.* Thus the Koran was
the work of a single individual labouring in secret
upon a pre-conceived system of his own, and
exerting the whole force of his understanding and
imagination, to frame, if possible, its successive
chapters into one harmonious whole. The various
portions of the Christian volume on the other
hand, though they also were slowly and separately
produced, were yet produced indifferent countries
and by different individuals, and under different
circumstances ; whilst, instead of containing only
insulated parts of the Gospel scheme, each treatise
will be found to reveal the entire outline of the
religion of Jesus, and that outline to be uniformly
the same. The Koran, again, was formed to be
the model of that religion which was afterwards
to be preached, and it was impossible, therefore,
to say whether it did or did not contain a correct
transcript of the original views and doctrines of
its author. He might have changed his system
* White's Bampton Lectures.
Lect. 6.] HULSEAN LECTUKES, 1820. 145
during the progress of his labours, and it would
have been out of the power of any to detect the
alteration, which sprung up and was confined
within the darkness of his own solitary cave, and
the limits of his own creative mind. But the
writings of the New Testament are the mere
transcripts of what had been already both long
and extensively promulgated by various teachers.
It was therefore impossible for any deviation to
have been made from the doctrines which had
been originally and uniformly delivered, without
affording an immediate and full opportunity of
detection. Every Jew and every Christian could
determine whether what he read in the writings
did or did not correspond with the things which
he had heard from the preaching of the Apostles.
The very time and manner of the publication of
the Gospels are, therefore, sufficient to persuade
us that they contain a faithful outline of those
actions and doctrines which were universally,
and from the first, delivered to mankind as the
doctrines and actions of Jesus Christ. There may
be circumstantial variations, but they must have
been substantially the same.
Now the whole of this advantage would in
a great measure have been lost to the world, had
there existed from the earliest period of the
146 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 6.
preaching of the Apostles one single document to
which they had all referred as the authentic record
of the life of Christ, and the only authoritative
repository of his doctrines. In that case we should
have lost the evidence which is now afforded by
the uniformity of the creeds of different Churches
and the writings of different individuals. It would
have been insinuated that the scheme of Christ-
ianity had been deliberately planned and steadily
executed, and the original record would have been
regarded as the product of art and imposture,
adapting their means to a preconceived and ma-
turely meditated end. But what says St. Paul ?
" T'hough I, or an angel from heaven, preach any
other Gospel unto you than that which I have
preached unto you, let him be accursed."* Of all
the testimonies which man can give of his sincerity
and confidence in the truth of what he teaches,
this is the strongest and most unequivocal ; and it
is the very language held out to us by the history
of the successive composition of the books of the
New Testament, at periods considerably sub-
sequent to the death of Christ. Whilst we
acknowledge, therefore, the difficulties arising
from this fact, and perceive the additional com-
plexity which it introduces into the details of the
evidences of Christianity, let us at the same time
* Gal. i, 8.
Lect. 6.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 147
be thankful for the additional strength which it
gives to the fabric, and the broad and marked
line of distinction which it draws between the
presumptuous imposture of the deceiver of
Arabia and the holy religion of the anointed
Jesus.
L 2
DISCOURSE VII.
ACTS, chap. xvii. ver. 3. latter part.
" This Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ."
BY the miraculous nature and benevolent ten-
dency of his works, joined to the purity of his
precepts and the blamelessness of his life, our
Saviour vindicated, in a most satisfactory manner,
his claims to the dignity of a divine commission.
His works declared that the Father had sent him,
and without pursuing our inquiries beyond this
point, his religion becomes, upon the strength of
this conclusion alone, most fully entitled to our
gratitude and obedience. Jesus, however, aspired
to something more than the simple character of a
Messenger from Heaven. Moses had said unto
the Fathers, " A Prophet shall the Lord your
God raise up unto you of your brethren, like
unto me. Him shall ye hear."* Arrayed in the
* Acts iii, 22.
Lect. 7.] HULSEAN LECTUHES, 1820. 149
authority of that Prophet, the Son of Mary ap-
peared unto the world, and demanded, in con-
sequence, a more than ordinary deference and
attention to his commands. His religion he
declared to be entitled to more than common
acceptation, because it was the religion of one
who in his nature and dignity was far superior
to any common prophet. He assumed to himself
the office and honours of the Christ, the Messiah,
the anointed of God.
Pretensions of a character at once so grand
and so peculiar could never have been established
by any miracles, however certain or numerous
or magnificent, when considered merely as mira-
cles, that is, as effects contrary to our general
experience of the agency of human strength and
unassisted man, and as works, for the production
of which the favour and interposition of the Deity
were necessary. Many preachers of righteous-
ness had appeared since the days of Moses, unto
Israel had fashioned their lives in strict con-
formity with their precepts, and performed many
and mighty wonders in their support had healed
the sick, cleansed the lepers, raised the dead to
life, and multiplied the food of man in a most asto-
nishing manner, by a mere blessing pronounced
from their lips. Yet were they none of them
considered, even for a moment, or by the most
150 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Xecf. ?.
unthinking, as the Christ. Elisha had cured the
Syrian Naaman of his leprosy, had restored her
son to the woman of Shunem, and caused the
widow's cruise to pour forth its oil in a stream of
miraculous increase. All these things had Elisha
done. He had prophesied, too, and his prophecies
were fulfilled. He was like unto our Saviour in
the nature of his works, and in the holiness of
his doctrine and his life ; yet with all his power
he was ranked only in the general class of pro-
phets. He was numbered with Samuel and
Elijah, those mighty men of God, but neither
professed himself, nor was looked upon by others,
to be the expected consolation of Israel. In the
publicity, then, and in the mercy, and in the mag-
nitude of his miracles ; in the reasonableness of
his doctrines and the righteousness of his precepts;
in the godliness of his life, and in the clearness
and certainty of his prophecies, though we may
behold indisputable evidence that Jesus of Na-
zareth " was approved of God," yet can we not
find in them, when considered without reference
to the ancient predictions, any satisfactory proof
that he was the Messiah of the Scriptures, and the
looked-for of the Jews. Our confidence in that
great fundamental article of our religion, must be
derived from another source. The doctrines and
miracles of the Gospel do indeed mutually con-
firm each other, and incontestibly show it to
HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 151
have been one of the revelations of God ; but
they do not demonstrate it also to have been that
particular revelation which the Jews expected to
be promulgated by the blessed Immanuel. That
Jesus is the Christ, and that the Gospel is the
revelation promised through the Christ, must be
determined by considering whether he did and
spoke and suffered those things which Christ
ought to have done and spoken and suffered.
What Christ ought to have done and spoken and
suffered is predicted and detailed in the Books
of the Old Testament ; and the genuineness and
integrity of those books must be presumed to
have been already and unequivocally established
by the same arguments which have satisfied us.
of the credibility and inspiration of the Apostles
and their writings: for in the writings of
the Apostles the existing records of the Jewish
Scriptures are assumed as the word of the inspi-
ration of God, and referred to as the foundation
of the Christian faith. If Jesus, therefore, be
the Christ, he must have borne in his own per-
son the distinguishing marks of Christ as dis-
played in the law of Moses, and in the writings
of the holy men of old. A prophet greater than
all the prophets which had gone before, his
miracles declared him to be ; but his undoubted
title to the peculiar honours and offices of the
Messiah is founded upon his fulfilling all that was
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 7.
written of him, and must, therefore, be shewn
by a comparison of the events of his life with the
words of the Jewish Scriptures, as explained to
us by the inspired, and therefore authoritative,
interpretations of his own Apostles.
The conclusion to which we have thus been
led by a previous and accurate examination into
the nature of the case, is confirmed to us by the
uniform practice of the disciples of our Lord in
their reasonings with the Jews, and by the de-
cisive language of our Lord himself.
Philip converted to the Christian faith the
treasurer of Candace, queen of Ethiopia, by
"preaching unto him Jesus from the Scrip-
tures,"* and explaining to him the strict con-
nexion which subsists between the sufferings of
our Lord and the mournful predictions uttered
concerning his fate, so many centuries before,
in the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah; a passage,
which is so sad, that it never can be read without
being sensibly felt ; and so convincing that it was
not only effectual in the days and under the hands
of those disciples who possessed so great a mea-
sure of the Holy Spirit, but has probably also
made a deep impression upon every one who may
* Acts viii< 3
HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 153
have had the wisdom to consult it ; and became,
through the blessing of God, a principal instru-
ment in turning from an evil heart of unbelief
a nobleman who had continued through youth
and manhood one of the most bitter and deter-
mined enemies of our religion.* St. Peter also
preached Jesus Christ, testifying that " to him
give all the prophets witness." f And we learn
from the same unerring source, the Acts of the
Apostles, that a reference to the completion of
the prophetic parts of the Old Testament, in
the ministry, crucifixion, and resurrection of our
Saviour, was the general method employed in
those primitive days, in propagating the Gospel as
the religion of the Messiah, and was ever con-
sidered by impartial judges as satisfactory, if not
irresistible, to those who agreed in the truth of
the miracles of Jesus, and acknowledged him to
have been a prophet sent from God. Apollos J
mightily convinced the Jews, and that publicly,
shewing, from the Scriptures, that Jesus is Christ.
It was moreover the manner, the common, if not
the universal, custom of St. Paul, to reason in
the synagogue' out of the Scriptures, opening and
alleging that Jesus must needs have suffered and
risen again from the dead ; that is, must needs
have done those things which it was foretold that
* See Burnet's Life of Lord Rochester.
t Acts x, 43. | Acts xviii. 28. Acts xvii, 3,
the Messiah should do, and that, consequently,
that Jesus whom he preached unto them was
Christ. He took it for granted, that they confided
in his testimony as to what Jesus of Nazareth
had really done and suffered in support of his
sincerity and claims, because his credibility, as a
chosen witness and Apostle of that Jesus, was
openly confirmed to their senses, by his possession
and exercise of miraculous powers. He assumed
it as a fact, that they believed our Lord to have
been at any rate a divine prophet, and then
shewing them the various things which the pro-
phets had declared that the Messiah should do,
he drew, from the fulfilment of those predictions
in his person and character and life, the inevitable
conclusion, that in the Son of Mary was to be
found this child of promise.
But the strongest confirmation of the correct-
ness of our views, as to the proper method of
applying the fulfilment of prophecy to the de-
fence of Christianity, is to be found in the evi-
dence of our Saviour himself. Having first of
a}i referred his unbelieving countrymen to a
consideration of his works for a proof that the
Father had sent him, our Lord afterwards com-
mended them to an examination of the Scriptures,
in order that they might learn the justice of his
pretensions to the character of the Messiah*
lect, 7.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 155
" Search the Scriptures," says he, " for in them
ye think ye have eternal life, and these be they
which testify of me." * The part of that evidence,
however, upon which I would venture to lay the
greatest stress, is the relation, which St. Lukef
has so happily left us, of the conversation which
Jesus held on the day of his resurrection
with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.
He overtook them sad and sorrowful, and com-
muning together, in doubtful reasonings and
dissatisfied conjectures upon the various events
which had happened in Jerusalem. Upon one
point they were both agreed. They both deter-
mined that Jesus of Nazareth was a prophet
mighty in word and deed ; for they had seen and
heard too much of the wonder of his workings
upon the afflicted, and the gracious doctrines
which fell from his mouth upon the poor, to
permit them for a moment to turn away from
their reliance upon his divine authority. But
they had looked to him as something more than a
simple prophet, however mighty, and they verily
began to think that they had been disappointed in
their views ; for the rumours which had reached
them of his resurrection in the morning were but
the slender and doubtful tidings of an event so
strange and joyful that it could not be admitted
without much hesitation and the severest scrutiny.
* John v, 39, t Luke xxiv. 1336.
156 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Ltct. 7.
They had trusted, as they said, that Jesus had
been he which should have redeemed Israel ; but
their holy confidence had been miserably shaken,
and almost dissipated, by the sudden calamity of
his death. For they thought it impossible, that
he whose kingdom was to be an everlasting king-
dom, and whose throne was to be for ever and
ever, should yet be delivered to his enemies, and
by wicked hands be crucified and slain. Such,
then, being the causes of their uncertainty, and
finding that they acknowledged him as a divine
prophet, and doubted only of his pretensions to be
the Messiah, our Saviour entered upon the task
of their conversion, not by any reference to his
miracles or his doctrines, " but beginning at
Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself."
Directed then in our views upon this subject,
by him whose judgment was correct upon every
subject, we also must shew from the Scriptures
that Jesus is the Christ. We must do this in
imitation of our blessed Lord, and we must do it
for the same reason too ; because those to whom
we address our words are presumed, from the
consideration of the arguments which have been
already advanced, to have an implicit faith in the
reality of his miracles; and in the perfection of his
lect. 7.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 167
religion, and in the holiness of his life, and,
therefore, also, in the truth of his divine mission,
- Here the arduous nature of the task we have
undertaken, first and most forcibly strikes us. So
various and innumerable are the references in the
Old Testament, direct and implied, to the great
bruiser of the serpent's head, that to detail them
all would be an impossible attempt. It would
only be to range the larger part of the law on one
side, and compare it with the larger part of the
Gospel on the other. Even to give a connected
history of the gradual rise and progress of pro-
phecy would far exceed the limits of any single
Discourse. Nor would the difficulty be lessened
by endeavouring, amidst such a multiplicity of
proofs almost equally pertinent, to select the most
commanding and useful. I shall therefore con-
tent myself with a few general remarks upon
some of the most prominent and distinguishing
features of those predictions which relate to the
Messiah.
1. In addition to their number and variety, to
which we have already alluded, the first point of
view in which the prophecies respecting the Mes-
siah become particularly worthy of our considera-
tion, is from their express and unequivocal nature,
and their universal reference to his life. They
168 HutsEAtf Lfcctfimfis, 1820* [Lect* 7.
relate to every period of the sojourning of that
heavenly personage amongst men, and designate
the events of each with a minute and almost his-
torical exactness. They trace him from his cra-
dle to his cross. The time, the place, the manner
of his birth' the time, the place, the manner of
his death and burial the subsequent glories of
his resurrection from the grave his education
and ministry the grandeur of his royal descent
the meanness of his immediate parentage
the dignity of his employment the lowliness of
his outward circumstances the righteousness of
his life, and yet the hatred and contempt which
should pursue his innocence and destroy his hap-
pinessall these are pictured with such clear-
ness of conception, and such descriptive accuracy
of language, as no impostor, whose wisdom
it is to dwell in generalities for ever, would have
dared to use, and no enthusiast, whose ideas
are always indistinctly conceived and vaguely ex-
pressed, would have had sufficient command over
his understanding and feelings to adopt.
k 2. Our astonishment at the fulfilment, and our
conviction of the divine origin of the prophecies,
Which relate to the person and character of the
Messiah, will still be increased, if we remember
that many of them are apparently inconsistent
with each other, and many of them, even when
Led. 7.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 159
singly viewed, so different from the actions, that
they never could have entered into the mind of
an ordinary man.
The imagination of a volatile being might,
perhaps, in some sportive moment, or in some
fanciful mood, have sat down to trace the outlines
of a character combining in itself every thing
unheard or unthought of by man ; but then this
would be done only for a pleasing occupation
during some vacant hour; for the amusement,
but never for the instruction or direction of those
to whom it was written : and still less would
any one thus exert the creative powers of genius
for the purpose of drawing down upon him the
eyes of mankind as one of those that were com-
missioned to speak the words of soberness and
solemnity from the Almighty. It would be as
a poet and not as a prophet, that he would give
unbridled utterance to the vague and unconnected
strangeness of his thoughts. Yet of all the de-
lineations of human character which have ever yet
been formed in the fine phrensy of a poet's or
a painter's brain, that which most completely
deviates from the ordinary outline of a man, is
the picture of the Messiah as it stands bodied
forth to us by the firm and vigorous pencil of the
prophets, in all the nakedness of its incomprehen-
sible sublimity. It was possible for inan.yia.one
among the children of Judah, to have been the
160 HULSEAN LECTUKES, 1820. [Lect. 7.
son; but tell me, how he could at the same time
also have been the Lord of David ? It was possi-
ble he might be of the seed of the woman; but
how could he become the offspring of a virgin ?
He might be the chief corner-stone of the temple ;
but how also a stone of stumbling and a rock of
oifence ? He was to be the desire of all nations ;
wherefore then is it said, that his own flesh and
blood men that were his brethren, and children,
like himself, of the stock of Abraham should
close their eyes, and shut up their ears, and
harden their hearts, so that they could neither see,
nor hear, nor feel, that he was come to bless them ?
How came it to pass that the chosen of God was
described as hated and rejected of God's peculiar
people. Why should it please the Lord, the just
and merciful Lord, to bruise him who had done
no violence, neither was deceit found in his
mouth? Why should the Holy One be num-
bered with the transgressors, or how could the
Everlasting be cut off out of the land of the
living? And though he thus made his grave
with the wicked, yet how should he also make it
with the rich, in his death ? Or, lastly, by what
strange fatality could his destruction become to
him the source of eternal life, and because he had
poured out his soul unto death, yet, for that very
reason, have his days prolonged, and the pleasure
of the Lord to prosper in his hand ?* These are
* Isaiah, liii.
Zee*. 7.] HULSEAN LECTDBES, 1820. 161
contrarieties which no one who wished to obtain
credit for his knowledge of futurity would have
ventured to predict, had he not been confident
in his possession of the spirit of prophecy. Any
single prophet who respected either his own
veracity or the welfare of others never would
such a one, without inspiration, have spoken thus;
and without inspiration a succession of writers,
however wise, could never have entertained the
thought. For had human penetration and inge-
nuity alone exerted themselves to the very utmost
to endeavour to find out a character in whom these
varieties might have been reconciled and accom-
plished, the labour could scarce ever have been
expected to be crowned with success. He who
was at the same time the Son of God and of Man,
only did, and only could, unite in his own person
such various attributes. The Father, therefore, by
whose wisdom alone it was ordained, by whose
power alone it could be effected, that the Son of
God should become the Son of Man, is the only
being to whom we can reasonably look for the
author, either of the predictions or of their fulfil-
ment.
3. I have remarked that no succession of pro-
phets could ever have framed that series of pro-
phecies which relates to the Messiah by the force
of their own unassisted genius or invention ; and
M
162 HUISEAN LECTUEES, 1820. [Led, 7
this becomes another strong point in the illustra-
tion of their fulfilment in Jesus.
It is extremely difficult to form an accurate
conception of the ideas of an author when ex-
pressed only in the language of imagery. Figu-
rative resemblances may give vigour and liveli-
ness to our conception of those truths which have
already obtained their seats in the chamber of the
understanding, but they are by no means calcu-
lated to make us comprehend any new or original
notion. Now this difficulty must always be very
seriously felt in the case of prophecies unfulfilled.
The language of prophecy is seldom the language
of common life ; and though its reference to a
subject becomes sufficiently clear when once we
have obtained a key to its interpretation by seeing
it fulfilled, yet it is generally of so metaphorical
a nature that, previous to its fulfilment, it is
almost impossible with strictness and certainty to
define its meaning. Such also is the language
of that chain of prophecies relative to the Mes-
siah, which under the Mosaic covenant were
slowly and gradually unfolded by various indivi-
duals in different ages and altogether unconnected
with each other. So gradual, indeed, was the
developement of the scene, that no succeeding
prophet (and it is a strong argument for their
general credibility) can in any instance be sus-
Led. 7.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 168
pected of having derived the new light which he
threw upon the subject, by inferences gathered
from the casual hints of those who had preceded
him. The links are all intimately and mutually
connected, but yet so, that it is evident that each
individual must have independently formed and
added his own to the series. Moses had recorded
the earliest promise of God when he declared
unto the serpent that the seed of the woman
should bruise his head, and we have seen those
words literally fulfilled in Jesus Christ who was
born of a pure virgin. But who that was not a
prophet could, previous to that accomplishment,
have seen the necessity of thus limiting their
sense, or have dared to pronounce, without the
inspiration of God, that a virgin should conceive
and bear a son that a woman should compass
a man. This promise of the Messiah was after-
wards limited to the posterity of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. But who could, from this circum-
stance alone, have drawn the information that
the Saviour should spring from the loins of David,
and first shine upon the world in the small and
inconspicuous village of Bethlehem ? Or grant
all these things known, and who could yet have
fixed with Daniel the true and exact period of
his appearance, or have pronounced, with Micah*
that the Lord "would send his Messenger to
* Micah iii.
M 2
164 HULSEAN LECTUHES, 1820. [Lect. 7.
prepare his way before him." All these prophets
added something essential to what had been before
revealed concerning Christ. Yet could they not
have consulted together in their deceit,, because
they flourished at different periods. Neither could
they have copied or enlarged their descriptions
from the writings of former prophets, because the
things which they separately revealed were not
necessarily implied in what went before, and were
often but remotely, if at all, connected with each
other. They all preserve the common and lead-
ing characters of the Lord of Righteousness in
their descriptions, in order to fix the identity of
the person to whom they refer ; but they all, at
the same time, contribute some peculiar and
original designation, in order to mark the inde-
pendence and continuity of their own heavenly
communications.
The third remark, therefore, which I would
make upon these predictions, is this. That the
character of the Messiah was not drawn in them at
once, and at full length ; but was sketched at differ-
ent periods and by different hands, each adding a
distinct and unborrowed feature,* till the whole
* A very interesting Dissertation might be formed, pointing
out the circumstances which each prophet successively added to the
predictions of his predecessors, and shewing that these circum-
stances were neither necessarily implied, nor could by inference
be gathered from what had been written before. I may now add
Lect. 7.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 165
was finished and detailed with that fulness and
perspicuity in which we now behold it in the
records of the Old when compared with the fulfil-
ments of the New Testament.
4. Lastly, many of these prophecies were
such as an impostor, unaided and unapproved by
God, however willing, could never have been able
to accomplish ; for they were to be fulfilled not
only by, but in the person of the Messiah.
There were many things not only to be done but
suffered by him, things which wholly depended
upon the will and actions of others, and over
which he himself could exercise no control. Any
one, whose wish or interest it had been to prac-
tise the delusion, might have imitated many of the
marks of the Messiah, might have personated the
character of a Redeemer in Israel, and assumed
the glorious names of " the Wonderful, Counsellor,
the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."
He might have lived in a state of wretchedness
and poverty, and have made himself of no reputa-
tion, and taken upon him the form of a servant,
and become a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He might even have given up his
life an offering for sin. But could he have moulded
that such a Dissertation has been published. See an excellent
Tract entitled, "The Gradual Developeraent of the Office, Titles,
and Character of Christ in the Prophets, a proof of their Inspira-
tion." By Allen Cooper, A. M. of Oriel College, Oxford*
London: printed for C. and J. Rivington. 1825.
166 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 7.
the passions of others to his purpose ? Could he
have made his name to be despised and rejected
of men? Could he have been born and have
suffered at a particular time and place, and in
a particular and miraculous manner ? Could he
have caused them to look on him whom they had
pierced, or to divide his raiment, or to cast lots
upon his vesture, or to prevent a bone of his body
from being broken? Could he have performed
those wonders which marked both the entrance
of our Saviour into life, and his departure from
it again unto his Father ? Preach the Gospel to
the poor he might, and so do we ; but could he
have confirmed his preaching by the testimony of
works following, by the healing of the sick and
giving sight to the blind ? Yet these things had
the prophet Isaiah declared that the Messiah
should do ; but the power to perform them is of
God alone, and whoever, therefore, possesses that
power, must possess it by the ordinance of God,
as a discriminating mark of his appointment to a
peculiar office.
Seeing, then, that the prophecies concerning
the Messiah were in number so multiplied ; in
their promulgation so gradual ; in their nature so
varied and minute ; and combining into the de*
lineation of one single character, circumstances
so distinct and almost opposite to each other, we
undeniably conclude, that he who fairly and fully
Lect. 7.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 167
accomplished them all, was doubtless that par-
ticular personage whom they were intended to
prefigure and represent. Such a man was Jesus
of Nazareth, that man of wonders, whom we have
already beheld, as a man approved of God. He
was born of a Virgin ; born in Bethlehem ; born
at the appointed time, when all men were looking
for the Consolation of Israel. His messenger
went before him and he came suddenly to his
temple, in the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and of might, the spirit of
knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. He lived,
he died, he was buried, he rose again and ascended
up on high, according to the Scriptures. As his
miracles and doctrines prove him to be a prophet,
so from the Scriptures, therefore, he may be shewn
to be the prophet Christ. " The testimony of
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy," and here at length
we may close the direct and positive evidences of
Christianity with satisfaction to our minds.
Poor and idle indeed must have been that
speculation, unworthy any wise, most of all un-
becoming any Christian man, which leads to no
practical consequences, " which ministereth not
to godly edifying," which imprints upon the heart
no deeper sentiments of adoration to God, which
raises in us no livelier feelings of charity to man,
which terminates in no beneficial effects upon the
holiness of our life here, or the happiness of our
168 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 7.
life hereafter. " For of every idle word that men
speak they shall assuredly give an account in the
day of judgment," and I know of none of the
commandments of our Lord which it can be
more useful, by reason of its importance, for the
mind of a minister to dwell upon, or more fearful,
by reason of his disobedience, for the memory of
a minister to recall. Strive we then to rescue our
present inquiry from the folly, and the sin, and
the danger, and the damnation of idle words, by
setting before you that faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation,-" that they which believe,
be careful also to maintain good works." Tis
true, we are taught, and therefore teach, that " we
live by the faith of the Son of God." But then
we are also taught, and therefore also teach, that
u the just" alone " shall live by that faith." Tis
true we read, and therefore speak, as if " by faith
a man were justified, without the works of the
law;" but then we also read, and therefore also
speak not as if " the hearers of the law are just
before God," but only as if the doers of the law
shall by faith be so justified. Wherefore in our
exhortations to godliness we would call " unto all,
and upon all them that believe, for there is no
difference," to add virtue to their faith* Pain and
corruption are the same in nature, whether they
be found in the head or in the hand of the afflicted.
And sin is exceeding sinful, and in its exceeding
sinfulness will it be judged, whatever member of
Led. 7.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 169
the Christian body it may affect. Tribulation and
anguish, indignation and wrath will be poured
down alike upon pride and covetousness, and
lasciviousness, and indolence and drunkenness and
revellingsandbanquetings, and such like, wherever
they continue and abound ; whether in the old or
in the young. And high and low, rich and poor,
understanding and simple, master and disciple
must alike sit down in meekness at the feet of
Jesus, and be content to learn wisdom from the
fishermen of Galilee. For in the rules of righte-
ousness there is no respect of persons with God ;
and faith, and love, and worship, and prayer, and
heavenly-mindedness, and purity, and humility, are
all alike demanded in the Gospel from all. " Let
every one, therefore, that nameth the name of
Christ, depart" also at the same time " from ini-
quity ;" because it is so comfortable to a man's
own mind, so conducive to the glory of God, and
so necessary for the conversion of sinners from
the error of their ways.
First of all, I say, let us be influenced by our
hopes and fears, and be godly for our own sakes.
As we rejoice in the sunshine of future happiness,
or tremble at the darkness of future misery, let us
not be cast down by the ruggedness of our holy
path, but remember the unspeakable greatness of
the reward,
170 HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. {Led. 7.
Next, let us be godly for the glory of God and
in compliance with the wise and merciful designs
of his providence. The law of the Lord is an
undented law, formed and intended to purify the
soul. How then do we blaspheme the name of
the Almighty, thwart his views and counteract his
blessings, if, with a deep sense of the excellence of
our religion in our minds, and full acknowledg-
ment of its truth upon our lips, we yet curse it
with an inward barrenness, and render abortive its
every effort to bring forth the fruits of holiness
in our lives. " Faith, hope, and charity, these
three ; but the greatest of these is charity." If,
therefore, we have faith without works, it is possi-
ble that we know God, but it is certain that, as
God, we glorify him not.
Lastly, let us be pure, holy, harmless, and
undefiled, for the sake and salvation of those
around us. As the lot has not fallen to us in
a heathen country, we are not called upon to pass
through the fire of persecution ; but we are still
bound to prove the stedfastness of our faith by the
sincerity of our obedience. We are surrounded
by the prejudices of the Jews, the weakness of
unstable brethren, and the perverted judgment of
the philosophic infidel ; and little do we know of
the influence of example, or the evil consequences
of evil actions, if we dare to flatter ourselves that
Led. 7.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 171
they are looking with an eye of indifference upon
our conduct. It may be, that had it not been for
the inconsistency which subsists between the
profession and practice of Christians, those that
have fallen might have yet been standing in the
faith; Infidelity might ere this have ceased to
blot the moral creation; and all the scattered
children of Israel have been numbered in the fold
and flock of Christ. But these things you will
say have happened according to the word of pro-
phecy. They have. " It must needs be that
offences come, but woe be to that man by whom
the offence cometh." Let us, then, most diligently
study to avoid that woe. Let us humbly examine
our hearts, and reflect upon our lives, and strive
after perfection. For all the reasons which I have
advanced, " let every one that nameth the name
of Christ depart also from iniquity.
DISCOURSE VIII.
COLOSS. cliap. i. ver. %&.
" Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the Gospel which ye have heard''
WE have hitherto been occupied in giving a
connected and systematic view of the evidences
of Christianity, and in endeavouring to point out
the particular power of each separate part in
supporting and binding up the whole. The mi-
racles, the doctrines, and the life of our Lord, and
the prophecies by which the Messiah was
described under the law, have passed before our
understanding in successive review, and we have
been satisfied that each link in the chain has its
peculiar office; that they cannot be separated
without mutual and material injury both to their
beauty and strength; and that though, when
singly considered, there is not one which alone
and by itself can sustain the whole weight .of the
Lcct. 8.] HtiLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 173
Christian cause, yet that, when they are taken
all together, they form as complete a demonstration
of the religion of the Gospel, as it is possible to
obtain of any moral proposition whatsoever. I
have frequently and seriously meditated upon this
course of reasoning, and I do solemnly declare
that I cannot perceive in it any irrelevant or
inconclusive circumstance, which should unsettle
our faith in its validity, or move us " away
from the hope of the Gospel which ye have
heard." But as the subtilty of scepticism has
somehow or other contrived to raise an ingenious
objection against almost every part of the pro-
cess, it will be necessary to recapitulate the
various arguments of which the scheme is com-
posed, and to consider the several objections as
we go along, in order to shew that philosophy
has never yet been able to discover any latent
fallacy or internal weakness, in that train of
evidence which, in its outward semblance at least,
appears to be possessed of so much consistency
and strength.
1. Having established the credibility of the
Evangelists, as witnesses of the works and words
of Jesus, we referred, in the first place, to his
miracles; and observing that they were wrought
in defence of his claims to a divine commission,
we presumed that the power by which he per-
174 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led, 8.
formed those miracles, proceeded either imme-
diately or ultimately from God, as the sign and
seal of his divine approbation.
Now what is it that our adversaries object to
this conclusion ? They tell us that a miracle con-
veys no absolute proof either of the veracity or of
the divine authority of the being by whom it is
wrought ; but is a mere mark and evidence of
his extraordinary knowledge or power. Ab-
stractedly considered, it is impossible for any
proposition to be more correct and just than this.
Define a miracle in what terms you will. Call it
a violation of the laws of nature, with Hume ;
call it an exception to the laws of nature, with
Rousseau; or describe it, more accurately and
modestly, as a work beyond the unassisted
strength and knowledge of its visible agent to
perform, and still without all doubt, when con-
sidered merely as a miracle, it is a proof only
of its author being endued with some unusual
power over the operations of nature, or a more
than common insight into her laws. But what of
this? It is not from miracles, when separated
from their concomitant circumstances, and con-
sidered in an abstract and insulated point of view,
as mere acts of power ; but it is from miracles
when viewed in connexion with their circum-
stances, when viewed in connexion with the pur-
Ltd. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 175
pose for which they were advanced, and with
their number, and their character, and their
tendency, as well as their extraordinary nature,
that we judge of the propriety or impropriety of
any appeal which is made to them. It is not
from their might alone, but it is from the union
of might, and mercy, and multitude, in the won-
derful works of our Lord, combined with the
fact of his appeal to them as the signs of his office,
that we reason upwards to his divine authority.
We argue, and we think we argue justly, thus :
We say, that it is inconsistent with the fundamental
attributes of the Deity to suppose that any event
can take place without his especial permission.
We then further say, that it is equally irrational
to suppose that he will in any instance permit a
series of the most astonishing works, works the
most congenial to his own benevolent nature,
to be continually performed from day to day for
the express purpose of deceiving mankind and
inducing them to believe that the testimony of
Heaven has been given to a lie. But the mi-
racles of Jesus were thus performed from day to
day, and, if he was indeed endued with no
divine authority, performed for the express pur-
pose of deceiving mankind and inducing them to
believe that the testimony of God had been given to
a lie. If, therefore, the religion and pretensions
of Jesus had been false, there appears to be a very
176 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
strong presumption indeed against supposing that
the God of infinite holiness and everlasting truth
would either have aided him himself, or permitted
him to have been aided by any subordinate
being, in the performance of those miracles to
which he appealed as the evidences of his being
a messenger of God. A few lying and artificial
wonders, a few portentous and deceitful signs,
it is possible, or at least conceivable, that God
may sometimes allow to be displayed by men
of wickedness, in defence of falsehood. But
that miracles in multitude without number, in
nature the most unequivocal and true, in tendency
so congenial to universal goodness, and in mag-
nitude so characteristic of Almighty power that
miracles which, if the Gospel be false, have
actually continued, for the space of eighteen
hundred years, to delude the best and wisest
amongst the children of men that such mi-
racles should have been permitted to be untruly
set before the world as the sure and solid evi-
dences of a divine commission, is a supposition
which violates every reasonable notion of a super-
intending Providence. Thus we argue; and
hence we conclude, that whatever may be the
opinion which we choose to form with regard
to the immediate origin of the extraordinary
powers of Jesus ; whether we refer the opera-
tion of his miracles, as we most undoubtedly
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 177
ought, to the direct interposition of the great
God of Heaven himself, or to the inferior agency
of some subject spirit, the inference will, in both
cases, prove ultimately the same. The miracles
of Jesus were, in both cases, performed under
divine approbation, and are, therefore, in both
cases, the infallible testimonies of his divine
authority. Miracles in themselves may only be
marks of power, and there may be considerable
difficulty in proving from the character and ten-
dency of the Christian miracles, that they were
so strictly of God as to have been actually
wrought by God's finger. They might I deny
the fact, but I admit its possibility they might
possibly be no more than the works of some
spiritual and invisible being subordinate to God ;
but still it is impossible that they could have been
wrought without God's permission. There can
be but little difficulty, therefore, in concluding
that the doctrines of Christianity, which they
were brought forward to support, were them-
selves both sanctioned and approved by God;
which, after all, is the only point, of which it is
of any material importance that we should be
assured.
Having thus answered the objection which is
drawn from reason against the force of miracles,
we must next proceed to answer that which is
N
178 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8
deduced from experience. From the power of the
Egyptian magicians, it is said to be evident, not
only that God may, but also that he actually
does, sometimes permit miracles to be worked by
the disciples of a false as well as of a true
religion, and that consequently the miracles by
which a doctrine is supported, are by no means a
conclusive evidence of the divinity of its origin.
Rousseau* has laboured this objection with his
usual ingenuity and eloquence, but, after all, I am
at a loss to conceive in what possible way it can
be made to apply against the conclusiv^riess of our
argument from the Gospel miracles. There may
be some doubt whether any miracles were really
wrought by the magicians of Egypt. But be
this as it may, the fact is, at any rate, the only
instance within the whole range of history in
which we have any thing like a satisfactory proof
of the performance of any real miracles by the
votaries of a system notoriously false any evi-
dence, I mean, at all equal to that by which we
establish the truth of the works of Moses and of
Christ. The only inference to be drawn from a
solitary example, is therefore this ; that what God
has done once, he may do again ; and that as he
once empowered the Egyptian enchanters to ef-
fect a real miracle, he may, under similar circum-
* Lettres de la Mpntagne to which I generally refer.
tect. 8.] -HuLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 179
stances, empower the disciples of any other false
religion to do the same again. Try then and exa-
mine whether there be any similarity whatever be-
tween the circumstances under which the miracles
of Jesus and of the magicians were produced.
In Egypt, there was a contest between the
worshippers of two different deities. In Chris-
tianity there is no contest at all. Jesus came to
fulfil the law and the prophets, and not to destroy.
In Egypt, the miracles of the magicians were
convicted as enchantments by their inferiority.
In the miracles of the Gospel, there is no in-
feriority. They are more numerous and mag-
nificent and merciful than those of any other
religion in the world.
In Egypt, the means of an immediate de-
tection were at hand in the triumph of the
claims and miracles of Moses, and any momentary
doubt which might be experienced with regard
to the origin of the magicians' powers, instead of
leading to any permanent delusion, would only
serve to establish a tinner conviction of the truth.
It is perfectly reasonable, therefore, to suppose
that God, in this peculiar and only instance,
might wisely permit the magicians to perform
miracles, though their religion was false ; because
N2
180 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
the permission, when accompanied by the su-
periority of Moses, could have no possible ten-
dency to propagate their religion as true. But
the case is very different indeed with the miracles
of Christianity, if really wrought without the
divine interference or approbation, and in defence
of a religion which is in fact only of human
invention. For the miracles of the Gospel may
be traced up to their heavenly origin by all the
most distinguishing criteria of truth and divinity.
They have in themselves every appearance of
coming from God. The moral precepts of the
system they support are holy and good, its
positive institutions innocent, and its mysterious
doctrines, though far beyond the reach of human
comprehension, are yet in no case contradictory
to the principles of human reason : so that in the
religion of the Gospel we have no means what-
ever of detecting the deceit, if deceit, exist, and
the delusion when once begun must continue for
ever. It is not, then, in this case, as in the case
of the magicians, a reasonable supposition, but
a supposition directly inconsistent with the attri-
butes of the Deity, to imagine that he would have
permitted Jesus to perform his miracles with all
the usual marks of divinity about them, and under
circumstances where it was impossible to detect
the deceit ; unless the religion which he preached
had received the sanction of divine authority.
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 181
The conclusion, therefore, to which we have
ultimately arrived, is this, that there is such a dif-
ference in the circumstances under which the
miracles of the magicians and of Jesus were
wrought, that it would be both unfair and unsafe
to make an inference which we have drawn from
the one our rule of judgment with regard to
the other. To say, that because the miracles of
the magicians do not prove their religion to be
true, therefore neither do the miracles of Christ
prove Christianity divine, is to draw a general
inference from one particular case, and then apply
it to another which has no resemblance to the
first. Where the facts are different, the same
reasoning will not apply.
2. It should be carefully remembered, however,
in the second place, that we did not rest our
whole argument for the divine authority of Jesus
upon the nature and tendency of his many miracles
alone. We drew from the mercy and multitude
of his mighty works no more than a very strong
presumption in favour of their divine origin.
That presumption, however, was afterwards con-
firmed into certainty, by observing that the great
and glorious wonders of the Gospel were wrought
in defence of a religion of the most perfect right-
eousness and universal truth. Nor does there
i
appear to be the slightest shadow of a doubt, as to
18& HUESEAN LECTURES, 1820. [eci. 8.
the validity of this inference. It may be and
we admitted the possibility it may be possible
for some powerful, yet evil being, to work nume-
rous and beneficent wonders for the delusion of
mankind ; but we deny that there is any instance
on record, in the history of the world, in which
the fact can be proved ; and we maintain that an
evil being would never willingly exert his power
in favour of a religion which is holy and true, nor
ever be permitted to exert it in favour of one
which is unholy and false. We, therefore, con-
clude that the miracles of Christ, being produced
in defence of a system where all that is known
and understood is just and wise and holy, must
necessarily have been sanctioned by the divine
approbation, and be the marks and proofs of
a divine authority. Such is our demonstration ;
but here again we are interrupted by men reason-
ing after the rudiments of the world, and are told,
that if the truth of the doctrine can be established
without and before the consideration of themiracle,
the miracle is needless, and that if it cannot, the
miracle is inconclusive. In other words, our
argument is said to run round a vicious circle,
proving the doctrine by the miracles, and the
miracles by the doctrine.
Oh ! that men, before they proceed to apply
their propositions upon any occasion, would be
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 183
careful to examine not only whether they be just
and true in themselves, but also whether they be
relevant to the matter in hand. In a certain sense,
and to a certain extent, the objection to which we
have alluded is perfectly correct ; but it is correct,
neither in that sense, nor to that extent, in which
it would destroy or even weaken the evidence for
the Gospel. Our argument was simply this;* We
observed, first, that the source of the power by
which our Saviour performed his miracles
miracles whose reality depends upon the testimony
by which they are supported may be proved to
have been divine and not devilish, by a reference
to the truth of that part of his speculative doc-
trines and the excellence of that part of his moral
precepts, upon which it falls within the province of
human reason to determine. , We next concluded
that he who wrought such divine miracles in proof
of his divine authority, must necessarily be regard-
ed as a divine teacher ; and then, from his being
a divine teacher, we inferred, not only the addi-
tional weight which such a circumstance confers
upon those doctrines and precepts of whose nature
and tendency we are able to judge, but also the
truth and divine authority of every other doctrine
and precept which Jesus delivered ; and whose
truth, either because they are positive ordinances
or because they relate to subjects of a heavenly
and mysterious character, could never otherwise
184) HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
have been brought home to the human understand-
ing. From the reasonableness of our Saviour's
opinions in common things; from the propriety of
his ideas with regard to the attributes and opera-
tions of the Deity, and from the excellence of
that system which he has set before us as a rule
of life, we infer that the power by which he
wrought his wonderful works was from the God
of holiness and truth. Having thus established
his character as a teacher sent from God, we
next infer his authority also in all wwcommon
things, and argue, that the positive ordinances
which he enjoined, as of Baptism and the Supper
of the Lord, and the mysterious declarations
which he made, with regard to the atonement
and judgment of the world, must, because made
by him, be both certainly and divinely true. It
thus appears, that we do indeed prove the divine
origin of the miracles by the truth of some of
the doctrines, and the truth of some of the doc-
trines by the divine origin of the miracles. Yet
we cannot be said to argue in a vicious circle^
because the doctrines by whose truth the divine
origin of the miracles is proved, are not the same
doctrines with those whose truth the divine
origin of the miracles themselves is afterwards
brought forwards to confirm. The doctrines,
whose truth is brought forward to prove the
divine origin of the miracles, are those within the
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 185
reach of human judgment. Those doctrines,
on the other hand, whose truth the miracles are
supposed to establish, are those whose truth it is
beyond the limits of man's feeble philosophy to
ascertain; and the only satisfactory method of
overturning the conclusion we have drawn, would
be by shewing that these supernatural doctrines
are altogether inconsistent with reason or with
right. For we allow that miracles alone, however
numerous, or merciful, or great, can never firmly
establish the divinity of a system which is noto-
riously unjust or false. But we do confidently
maintain, that wherever the character of a religion,
so far as it can be understood, is both holy and true,
the miracles by which it is accompanied are a
sufficient proof that the whole system, if not un-
worthy of God, did actually proceed from him.
3. The last observation by which we en-
deavoured to confirm the divine authority of
Jesus, consisted in an allusion to the unblemished
beauty of his moral character ; and here we have
happily none of the sophisms of infidelity to con-
tend with. A few sneers against the singularity
of his virtue, and a few faint murmurs at the
inimitable perfection of his example, are the only
means by which his enemies have openly ven-
tured to take away from the holy wisdom of his
life, We may now, therefore, be permitted to
186 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 8.
pass on to the consideration of the validity of the
mode in which we attempted to shew that Jesus,
who was one of the prophets of God, was also the
predicted prophet of the Mosaic covenant.
4. Now the proof of this proposition, that
Jesus was the Christ, we made, in obedience to
the doctrines of our Lord and his Apostles, to
depend entirely upon his fulfilment of the pro-
phecies of the Old Testament ; and so numerous
and unequivocal, and yet singular, did their ful-
filment appear to be, that it is wonderful how a
doubt could ever be entertained of the certainty
of their completion* But by turning away his
face from light unto darkness ; by forgetting the
accomplishment of every prediction which relates
clearly to Christ, and fixing his attention upon
those alone in which the reference to him is less
evident, one ingenious writer* has ventured to
assert, that " the prophecies cited from the Old
Testament by the authors of the New, do plainly
relate, in their obvious and primary sense, to
other matters than those which they are produced
to prove." He therefore holds that they are
" to be applied only in a secondary or typical, or
mystical, or allegorical, or enigmatical sense."
Admit, for a moment, the whole of this state-
* Collins,
.Lcct. 8.] HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. 187
ment to be true. Admit that every prediction,
which is alleged in the New Testament as a pre-
diction of the Messiah, can be applied only in a
typical sense, and what, after all, will this prove
against the pretensions of Jesus to be that Messiah?
Nothing. Jesus did many mighty and merciful
works. Jesus preached a most holy and wise
religion. Jesus lived a most godly and blameless
life, and proved himself, by all these marks, to be
a prophet of God. Now it is this Jesus, this
prophet of God, who, in the New Testament,
declares that he was predicted, as the Christ, in
the Scriptures of the Old. The only fair and
satisfactory way, therefore, of overturning his
claims, would be, by producing some express and
direct prediction of the Messiah which the life
and actions of Jesus contradicted and belied. In
that case, we could neither believe him to be the
Christ, nor even a prophet of God, however
numerous or astonishing his works ; because one
main partof his pretensions having beenfound tobe
absolutely false, we could have little reliance upon
his truth in the remainder. .But there is no such
contradiction to be found in the case of Christ.
The only conclusion, therefore, to which the fact,
if correct, of the prophecies relating to the Mes-
siah being fulfilled only in an allegorical sense,
can lead, is this ; that the mind of the Holy Ghost,
when speaking of the Messiah, was expressed,
188 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
under the Old Testament, only in an allegorical
manner a conclusion which may indeed render
the interpretation of these prophecies less evident,
but when explained or asserted by a prophet of
God, by no means the less just or sure.
But is the whole statement true? Are the
prophecies of the Old Testament applied to Jesus
by the Evangelists either universally or even gene-
rally in a secondary sense ? Far otherwise. Turn
again to the writings of Isaiah, and read once more
his description of the man of sorrows,* and tell
me what there is in it that is either secondary or
typical. He speaks of a servant of God ; and
that servant a man ; and that man an individual
whose acts and sufferings and circumstances were
obviously and literally fulfilled in that righteous
servant of God "the man Jesus Christ," and in
him alone. David also speaketh thus : "The Lord
hath said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have
I begotten thee." Of whom speaketh the monarch
this ?f Not of himself as a child of God by crea-
tion, nor of any other common man ; but of some
more especial and appropriate, because begotten,
Son of God ; and that Son a child who should be
possessed of so much of his Father's greatness, as
to make David afterwards cry out and say, " When
his wrath is kindled but a little, blessed are all
f Isai, liii. t Acts xiii, S3. Psalm ii, 7.
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820>. 189
they that put their trust in him."* Of none but
Jesus could this truly be spoken, and in none but
Jesus was it truly fulfilled. Hear the king of
Israel once more. "The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy
foes thy footstool."! He saith also in another
psalm, "Thou shalt not suffer thine Holy One to
see corruption." J Now of himself David would
never have spoken these things, for he could not
call himself his own Lord, and would not, in
modesty, have called himself the Holy One of
God. Neither in David were these things. ful-
filled. For " David is not ascended up on high,"
but, "after he had served his own generation,
fell on sleep and was laid unto his fathers and
saw corruption."|| But Jesus was both the Lord
of David and the Holy One of God. Jesus also
saw no corruption in his death ; but, being raised
from the dead, did ascend up into heaven, and sit
down at the right hand of the Father, waiting
until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Now
all these passages are produced by the sacred
writers in direct confirmation of the Messiahship
of their Master, and in all, the prediction had
a primary reference to Christ, and a literal fulfil-
ment in Jesus. In these passages alone, there-
fore, we have a satisfactory demonstration that
* Psalm ii. 12. t Psalm ex. 1.
t Psalm xvi. 10. || Acts ii. 13.
190 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. {Lea. 8.
Jesus was the Christ, and it matters little how
many others may be produced in which the refer-
ence appears to have been only secondary, and
the fulfilment only figurative.
i
I have hitherto permitted it to be taken for
g'ranted that several of the prophecies of the Old
Testament, which are cited in the New, received
their accomplishment only in a typical or secon-
dary sense. But what reason have we to allow
that even this limited assumption is true ? That
a virgin should conceive, that Rachel was heard
weeping for her children, and that out of Egypt
God called his Son, are prophecies distinctly
urged by the Evangelists as having been literally
fulfilled in Jesus. What reason, then, have we to
suppose that they were not primarily also, if not
exclusively, spoken of him ? Because, as Collins
says, "they seem to bear," in the Old Testament,
a sense different from that in which they are
taken in the New, and to relate to other matters
than those which they are produced to prove.
But what of that ? Who are we, that we should
make what seems to us to be the meaning of an
ancient prediction, the true and only rule of inter-
pretation, when it is opposed by others, who were
much better able to judge and yet differ from us
in our views ? Whatever difficulty there may be
in proving the interpretation , which is given of
Leot, 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 191
any particular prophecy to be true, if that inter-
pretation proceed from a holy man of God, we are
bound to submit to it in every instance in which
it is not absolutely impossible or manifestly ab-
surd. Bring the present case to the test of this
infallible rule, and then tell me, Oh man, what is
thy superior skill that thou shouldest presume to
contend in knowledge and authority upon this
matter with the faithful Evangelists. They were
as Jews, the disciples of Moses. They were, as
Apostles, the authorized and instructed and in-
spired disciples of Jesus, and as his instructed and
inspired disciples, and as honest and credible men,
they have declared that they believed that these
various prophecies were accomplished in Jesus,
who shewed himself by many infallible proofs to
have been a prophet of God. Their authority,
therefore, as the honest and instructed and in-
spired ministers of Christ, who was a prophet of
God, is sufficient to bear the weight of any possi-
ble exposition or application which they may
assign to the prophetic language, however diffi-
cult, or however obscure. A positive contradic-
tion to reason or in terms is the only argument
we should admit as destructive of the propriety
of their* inspired illustrations.
* It is this objection of Collins which induced me to insert
a proof of the inspiration of the Apostles, before I proceeded to
192 HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect. 8.
It is not then " to give up the cause of Christi-
anity" to its enemies, when we assert that these
darker predictions, though .seemingly relating to
other matters, were yet literally fulfilled by Jesus
in their primary sense, and according to the mind
of the Holy Ghost in uttering them. It is only
to give up our own fallible judgment to the
superior authority of the infallible disciples of
a prophet who, " beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, had expounded to them, in all the Scrip-
tures, the things concerning himself." Nothing,
indeed, can be more sophistical or unfair than the
manner in which Collins has managed the whole
controversy with regard to the prophecies. He
has inverted the natural order of reasoning, by
beginning with those predictions whose interpre-
tation is the most difficult and obscure, instead of
those in which it is the most decided and plain.
Nay, he has avoided the consideration of some of
the most forcible altogether. Again, he has never
alluded to the fact that the Messiahship of Jesus
may be proved without any reference to the more
doubtful prophecies, and from passages whose
meaning and application to Christ is obviously,
primary, and unequivocally literal. He has forgot-
ten that the interpretation of the darker prefigu-
reason from their applications of ancient prophecies to Jesus
of Nazareth, and the advantage which has thus ,been gained in
answering the objection will, I tyusfc, appear evident.
Lect. 8.] HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. 193
rations of the Messiah, if not absolutely impossible,
rests as much upon the authority of the expositors
as the nature of the expositions themselves ; and
he has omitted to observe a very important distinc-
tion as to the different time and manner in which
the different kinds of predictions are produced by
the sacred writers. Predictions in which there is
a manifest and unequivocal reference to Christ are
those which were chiefly employed by the Apostles
in their contests with the unbelieving Jews.
Those, on the other hand, in which the intention
of the prophet is more indirectly and obscurely
revealed, are generally to be found in the Gospels
alone, which were written for the instruction and
consolation of believing Christians. I call this an
important distinction, because it points out to us
the difference we should observe in making use
of the clearer or the darker prefigurations of the
Messiah. In our contests with the hardened and
notorious infidel, we should begin always with
the plainest prophecies, because sufficient and
most forcible. The rest may be reserved for the
satisfaction of the yielding sceptic, or the support
of the established Christian.
Thus have we retraced our steps through the
whole process of our demonstration, and, ex-
amining link by link the entire chain of our
reasoning, have found it possessed not only of
o
194 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [ted. 8.
outward fairness, but of inward strength. We
have taken each objection into consideration as
it occurred, and think, at least, that we have
detected their unsoundness, shewn the fallacies
upon which they rest, and proved them inap-
plicable in every instance to the evidences of
Christianity. I could much have wished to have
added a variety of most important inferences
which follow from and recommend the course I
have pursued : but for the present I must forbear.
The time is past, and past in speculative reason-
ing's, without leaving me more than a few moments
for recalling your thoughts to practical godliness.
But what word of exhortation shall 1 this
day take ? Already have I spoken of the awful
necessity of adding virtue to our faith, and be-
sought you, as you value Christ's glory and man's
hopes, to depart from iniquity of every kind, and
to flee the lust, and the indolence, and the covek
ousness, and the pride, and the vanity of the
flesh. And what more shall I now say? What, but
this? That there is a virtue of the mind, as well
as of the body ; an iniquity of the head, as well
as of the heart ; and a lust, and an indolence,
and an intemperance, and a pride, and a vanity,
in the moral conduct of the understanding, as
well as of the affections of our nature. Look
to those children of darkness, those despisers of
Led, 8,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 195
the word of God whose errors we have been so
labouring to correct. Think of their delusion,
and then hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus
is it spoken unto them. " Behold, ye despisers,
and wowser" wonder that your counsel against
the Holy One of God is brought to naught, that
your reason was most unreasonable, your phi-
losophy deceitful, your wisdom foolishness, and
your imaginations vain ! This might of itself
seem a sufficient punishment for the boastful
presumption of the Deist, to hear that the fancied
triumph of his reasoning shall vanish away as a
vision of the night before the morning ray. But
the Scripture speaketh also of his destruction, and
crieth out, " Behold, ye despisers, and wonder,
and perish." What then shall the unbeliever say
to excuse himself in his infidelity and turn away
from him this wrath of God ? Shall he plead the
innocency of error, and say that he was deluded
ere he did delude? But why was he in error?
God giveth wisdom liberally to those that ask him,
and prayer is a duty of natural religion, as well as
of revealed ; and if his error spring from his
neglect in asking wisdom at the hands of God, it
is "fit that in the sinfulness of that error he should
die. Prayerless thoughts are seldom sanctified.
Or shall he say, that he was misled by some un-
avoidable prejudice ? God tempteth no man above
his strength, and so he is sinful still. Or shall he
196 HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lcct. 8.
urge, that in his ignorance he fell? Out of his own
mouth shall he be judged. For, behold, the Deist
is called rational, and resteth in reason, and mak-
eth his boast of philosophy, and is confident that
he himself, being instructed out of the perfection
of nature's law, is a guide of the blind, a light of
them which are in darkness, and an instructor of
the foolish Christian. How then shall he escape,
if, professing to approve only the things that are
more excellent, it shall be found, as it will be, that
the word of God has been blasphemed in the
world through his presumption ?
Ye see, then, that there can be no such
thing as the innocence of intellectual error in
religion. It is in thoughts as it is in deeds.
" If thou thinkest well, thou shalt be accepted,
but if thou thinkest not well, sin lieth at the
door." Before we can go wrong, whether in opi-
nion or act, we must have turned ourselves from
the means of grace, and perverted, or abused, the
faculties and opportunities with which we have
been blessed. Every unbeliever may not be a
wicked man in the deeds of his hands, but, before
he can have deviated from the truth, he must have
sinfully yielded to some intellectual passion of our
nature to the lust of curiosity, or the pride of
discovery, or the vanity of singularity, or the-
covetousness of human praise : or he must have
Lect. 8,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 197
been wanting in the meekness of true wisdom,
the humility of true science, or the virtue of de-
pendence upon God. Beware, then, my brethren,
lest this also happen to some of you, which is
written " Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools." Watch more especially, my
younger brethren, over the progress of your
studies, with unwearied caution and with a godly
jealousy, lest by any means ye fall into the snare
of the devil, and grow vain in your imaginations,
and your understanding become darkened to the
apprehension of the excellence of God's revealed
truth. If ye so give up yourselves to the practice
of rigid demonstration, that ye become disqualified
for appreciating the force of moral evidence ye
sin. If ye so altogether study abstract or erudite
truth that ye care not for moral and for practical ;
or if by any partial or exclusive pursuit of the
learning of any particular age, or nation, or
subject, you imbibe the prejudices of a sect or a
science, and are incapacitated for just and general
and impartial views ye sin. If in an earnest-
ness after frivolous, or unimportant, or earthly
knowledge, ye lose your relish for graver and
divine ; if by an anxiety for the graceful accom-
plishments of the world that is, you neglect the
preparation for that which is to come; if you forget
the qualities which recommend man to his Maker,
in the insignificant acquisitions of mere curiosity
198 HULSEAN LECTUJIES, 1820. [Led. 8.
or elegance ; if in indolence ye so dissipate and
blunt your faculties, as to grow incapable of tasting
'the power and the wisdom of the Gospel ; or if
by any course of study or discipline of the mind,
however excellent and useful it may be in itself,
ye fall away from the truth as it is in Christ Jesus,
ye are sinful still, and shall give an account of
your intellectual wickedness before the judgment-
seat of Christ. I say not that all unbelievers are
equally guilty before God, neither do I presume
to measure the several degrees of their evil and
their punishment. But this I do say, in justice,
that, if God be merciful and powerful enough to
give wisdom liberally to them that ask it of him
in faith and nothing wavering, then none who
err can be without their guilt. This I say in
justice, and this also I add in mercy, that the
least guilty would appear to be those who have
never been instructed in the knowledge of the
truth of the Gospel, nor been brought up in the
nurture and admonition of the Lord.
And, Oh, my Fathers, what a contemplation
does this present to us, to whom the instruction of
others is committed under God, if, because we
have neglected to give them the knowledge of the
rudiments of Christian wisdom, they fall into the
error and condemnation of disobedience or dis-
belief. They, indeed, shall have their own burthen
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 199
of woe to bear, but we too shall accompany them
to the shades of darkness, and have opened for
ourselves a fountain of never-failing tears. For, if
the despisers themselves shall behold, and wonder,
and perish, of how much sorer punishment, think
you, shall not we be counted worthy, if by our
neglect or folly we have made them so. Seriously
and solemnly, then, let us put the question to our
hearts, and ask our consciences, whether we are
or are not guilty as concerning this thing
whether we have or have not directed our endea-
vours to promote to the utmost of our power the
cause of that religion by which so many of us live
here, and by which we must all of us live hereafter?
If with sincerity the answer be returned, I fear
that we shall scarce be able to rise up altogether
unpolluted with blame. As individual instructors,
I trust we have little to lay to our charge as neglect-
ing to give encouragement to the knowledge and
practice of piety ; and in the government of those
particular Colleges over which we preside, or in
which we participate, I know that much has been
done to carry the mind and the heart to the studies
which lead unto everlasting blessedness. But
have we consented or refused to set the public
seal of our University, as a body, to religious
pursuits ? Have we or have we not given a public
testimony to the world of the attention with which
we cultivate, and the reverence with which we
200 HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect. 8.
regard those spiritual things, for whose propaga-
tion and improvement our privileges were granted,
and our rights conferred ? Is it or is it not possi-
ble, that one most ignorant in all the necessary
erudition of a Christian may yet receive uncen-
sured the highest of the honours we bestow, whilst
one most deeply imbued in the principles of sa-
cred science may pass away unpraised from the
trial ? If these things be so if neither the rudi-
ments of our holy faith, nor even the language in
which its records are written, form any portion of
our public and authorized examinations for de-
grees ; if neither reward nor disgrace attend our
knowledge or ignorance of the pages of the Gospel
at that period at which our proficiency is finally
tried be it yours to judge how far, as a public
and most important body, we can be said to en-
courage the studies of religion, or give a pledge to
our country that we are fulfilling the duty for
which we exist the duty of raising the national
character upon the basis of the national faith, and
building up the rising generation upon the im-
mutable foundation of Jesus Christ.
I urge not these considerations in ignorance
of the sacrifices which some, perhaps errone-
ously, may suppose that it will be necessary to
make in other things, in order to introduce so
essential and extensive a subject of inquiry with-
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTUHES, 1820. 201
in the sphere of our accustomed course of stu-
dies ; neither do I look forward with a fanciful
enthusiasm to any mighty revolution in the state
of the religious world as the immediate result
of the change. I urge the subject as it stands
connected with your duty. I press it upon your
thoughts as it affects your own eternal happiness
or misery in the world to come. To treat it upon
the ground of mere present expediency is a
narrow and unbecoming view of its awfulness,
ministering perpetual cause of sophistry, and
questions which may serve for strife, but not to
godly edifying. What, if there be some sacrifice
to be made (though it may fairly be doubted
whether any sacrifice at all will attend the mea-
sure) ; what, if some portion of scientific glory
may be lost, or some region of earthly and abstract
knowledge be less cultivated? Is there nothing to
make up for the sacrifice, nothing to compensate
the loss ? Meet the question as Christians. Meet
it, as it only can and ought to be met, upon broad
and Scriptural grounds the ground of your duty
to God's glory, your country's welfare, and your
own salvation. Think not only of the sacrifice to
be made, but compare it also with the advantages
to be had in return advantages as far superior to
any other consideration, as the enduring blessed-
ness of eternity is above the fading interests of
time. If there be learning, it shall fail; if there
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
be sciences, they shall cease ; if there be know-
ledge, it shall vanish away. But the word of the
Lord endureth for ever; and that word hath
proclaimed the decree, that every man should " be
ready always" and ready he cannot be unless
he be able, and able he cannot become unless he
be taught, " to give an answer to every one that
asketh of him a reason of the hope that is in him.
What then shall be our reward in the great judg-
ment of God, if we have fulfilled this decree, and
what our fearful punishment if, either as a body
or as individuals, it has been by us despised ?
" When the Son of Man shall appear in his glory,
and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit
upon the throne of his glory," and divide the
sheep from the goats, the faithful from the faithless,
and place them on the right or on the left hand of
his throne. Into one of these folds we must enter.
On the right hand or on the left hand of the
Lord all that are around me must stand ; and
melancholy as it is, to form the thought, it must
needs be, perhaps, that some of those who now
rejoice in the innocence and ingenuousness of
youth, may find their final destiny amongst the
faithless and perverse. For with all the energies
which we may put forth, with all the diligence we
may employ, with all the anxiety we may feel,
with all the prudence we may exert, it is scarce
possible but that some may fall away from virtue,
Lect. 8.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 203
and sink down into the habitation of devils and
the damned. When their voice of anguish, from
the deep pit of their destruction, shall strike upon
our ears, what is the impression it will produce
upon our hearts ? A feeling of sorrowfulness with-
out doubt, to think of talents wasted, virtue lost,
and the beautiful brightness of early hope broken
and blasted by the chilly touch, the heartless
reasonings of unrighteous unbelief. Yet if our
duty towards these fallen ones has been done,
it will be a feeling of sorrowfulness without fear,
chastened and subdued into pious regret, by the
cheering consciousness that we are guiltless of
their blood. But if their words be fraught with
the language of excuse, and we hear them plead-
ing for a mitigation of woe, because, though they
rejected their Redeemer in their age, yet in
their youth they were neither rewarded nor en-
couraged in the search after truth ; then will the
voice which cometh up from the prison of their
misery, come loaded with a curse upon our
selves, and call us down from the blessedness we
thought we had inherited, to be mingled in the
flames of their wretchedness and remorse.
But, perhaps, I am passing the bounds which
become my station and my age ; and I forbear.
Be it yours, my Fathers, to judge and to correct
what is amiss, To me, or to any minister of
204s HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 8.
God, it can only belong to exhort with all meek-
ness, yet with all earnestness, them that bear
rule in our University, to give a more direct and
special fulfilment to the Apostle's injunction, by
some additional regulations with regard to the
public studies and examinations of those, whose
instruction, both in worldly and spiritual things,
is committed under God, to their charge.* I
would beseech you as elders, so to divide the
attention and the time of those who are sent
hither to be imbued with all the necessary erudi-
tion of a man and a Christian, that every one,
upon quitting this fountain of knowledge, may
carry away with him " a reason of the faith and
the hope that is in him."
* I cannot permit a third edition of these Lectures to appear
without adding, that the subject here touched upon has been
considered, and that such a change has taken place in the public
examinations of the University, that no one can now obtain a
degree without some portion of classical erudition, and some
acquaintance with the principles of his religion.
DISCOURSE IX.
LUKE, chap, vii. ver.
" Then Jesus answering, said unto them. Go your way and
tell John what things ye have seen and heard ; horn that
the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the
deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the Gospel
is preached.... And blessed is he whosoever shall not be
offended in me.' 1
IN opening our views upon the evidences of
Christianity we professed an intention of examin-
ing whether the answer of our Saviour to the
Baptist contained a satisfactory solution of the
question he had proposed, and whether the cir-
cumstances of Christians in the present day are
so far similar, as to enable them to follow out the
same course of reasoning for themselves, and to
derive from it, when completed, a sufficient and
solid demonstration that Jesus was the Christ.
But we may seem, perhaps, to have forgotten the
proposition with which we originally set out, in
the impetuous pursuit of a peculiar system of our
206 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect, 9.
own, and to have lost sight of the example and
the authority of Jesus. It will be expedient,
therefore, to compare the nature of the argu-
ments we have advanced, and the order in which
those arguments have been arranged, with the
nature and order of those proofs to which our
Saviour referred in defence of his claims, in order
to see whether that particular train of evidences
which we have ourselves pursued, be in fact the
same -of the same force, and formed upon the
same model as his.
The inquiry of the Baptist contained a re-
quest for some distinguishing mark of the Mes-
siahship of Jesus, and the mark to which, in reply
to his demand, John was taught to look for a
solution of his doubts, was a combined and con-
nected view of the miracles and doctrines of our
Lord. " Go," said our Saviour to the disciples of
John, "and tell him what things ye have seen
and heard." Tell him the works I do, and the
words I speak. Tell him, first of all, " what
things ye have seen* how wonderful, how mer-
ciful, how varied are my works, " how that the
blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed,
the deaf hear, the dead are raised up." To the
character, the Evangelist informs us that our
Saviour added also the number of his astonish-
ing works; for he observes that, "in that same
Zect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 207
hour," when the men were come to him, " Jesns
cured many of their infirmities, and plagues, and
of evil spirits ; and unto many that were blind he
gave sight."
The second particular to which our Lord ap-
plied in recapitulating the evidences of his
Christian mission, was the nature of his doctrine.
" Go your way," says he, in the second place,
" and tell him what things ye have heard, how
that to the poor the Gospel is preached ;" how
that the simple in understanding are enlightened
by the knowledge of that pure and gentle wisdom
which is from above, those glad tidings of truth
and salvation, which speak peace on earth, and
good- will towards men. Say that my doctrines,
like myself, are holy and undefiled, and therefore
worthy to be confirmed by the testimony of a
perfect and Almighty God.
Thus far it is evident, that we have pursued, both
in the nature and arrangement of our proofs, the
very method which our Lord himself condescended
to use. Like him, we have first of all referred to
the mighty and benevolent character of his varied
and numerous works, for a presumptive proof of
the divine origin of his power ; and then we have
confirmed our conclusion by a subsequent con-
sideration of the righteousness of his religion;
208. HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect.Q.
thus establishing the divine authority of his com-
mission after his own manner, and upon his own
foundation. As our Saviour spake, so have we
spoken.
But it may seem, at first sight, that, in one
instance, we have gone beyond the pattern he
has left, and, by adding the prophecies of the Old
Testament to the miracles and doctrines of the
New, have introduced, and introduced as abso-
lutely essential to the confirmation of the Mes-
siahship of Jesus, an argument which he himself
has altogether omitted. But it so happens, that
a reference to the ancient predictions, though not
positively specified, is yet necessarily implied in
our Saviour's reply. The very words which pro-
ceeded out of his mouth, had fallen before from
the prophetic pen of Isaiah, as descriptive of the
glory and the greatness of the latter days, in
which "God would come and save," and "the
Redeemer should come to Zion, and to them that
turn from transgression in Jacob. 5 '* " He will
come and save you,"t says the Evangelical pro-
phet, and "then the eyes of the blind shall be
opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be un-
stopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an
hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. JJ And he
afterwards adds, " The Spirit of the Lord hath
* Isaiah lix. 20. Isaiah xxxv. 46
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 209
anointed me to preach glad tidings to the meek."*
Of these passages we have an exact and inten-
tional transcript in the language of our Lord.
I say an intentional transcript because, though
the intimate familiarity of our Saviour, as a Jew,
with every part and portion of the Scriptures of
the Old Testament (would to God that we had
a like familiarity with holy writ !) might have
prompted him, on many occasions, to make an
almost unconscious use of the expressions of the
ancient prophets, yet, upon the present occasion,
no such conjecture can be allowed, because he
had previously applied a part of the quotation as
a direct and literal prediction of himself. "He
came to Nazareth," says St. Luke,t " and, as his
custom was, he went into the synagogue on the
sabbath-day, and stood up to read. And there
was delivered unto him the book of Esaias the
prophet ; and when he had opened the book, he
found the place where it was written, The Spirit
of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the Gospel to the poor ; he hath
sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of
sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that
are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the
Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it
* Isaiah, Ixi. 1. t Luke iv. 1621.
P
310 HULSEAN LECTURES* 1820. [Lect, &
again to the minister, and sat down. And the
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were
fastened on him. And he began to say unto
them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your
ears. JJ And " this day is this Scripture fulfilled in
your ears," must, therefore, be conceived also to
have been the spirit of his intention, when, in
words of similar import, he returned his answer to
the Baptist. Nor is this all. The application of
these prophecies by Jesus to himself, rests upon
the very same authority as the similar applications
of other predictions by his Apostles, that is,
upon the inspiration of the person who gave the
interpretation ; and it consequently follows, that
in both cases the propriety of the mode in which
they were interpreted is alike sure. Thus do
we perceive that we have here set forth to us in
the Gospel a course of reasoning in favour of the
divine mission and Messiahship of Jesus, which,
both in the similitude of its substance, in the ar-
rangement of its parts, and the authority on which
it rests, corresponds most exactly to that which we
have been so long and laboriously employed in
deducing for ourselves. A stronger recommenda-
tion of its force and fulness could scarce be desired
by a disciple of Christ ; for it were irreverent and
impossible for the humble servant to imagine for
a moment that the answer of his divine Lord
could be defective.
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820*
It is not, however, by observing its consist-
ency with the principles upon which our Saviour's
answer to the Baptist proceeds, nor by pointing
out its positive efficacy and direct application in
establishing the' truth of Christianity, that we can
be said to have exhausted the recommendations
of that system of evidences which we have been
working out. The inferences to which it leads,
and the considerations which it suggests, and the
difficulties which it solves, confer upon it an addi-
tional value and importance in our eyes ; and it is
to some of these properties that I would now
direct your attention.
1. In the first place, then, we are enabled,
from the views which I have been taking of
the relative use of the performance of miracles,
and the fulfilment of prophecy, in bearing up the
Christian cause, to account, in a most simple and
satisfactory manner, for the prevalent infidelity of
the Jews both in the days of our Saviour and
our own. ;
Upon the first appearance of our Lord amongst
the Israelites, there seems to have been a consi-
derable readiness in the great mass of the people
to admit his claims ; and at his very first public
appearance at the Passover at Jerusalem, " many
believed in his name when they saw the miracles
p2
HTJLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [lect. 9.
which he did." * Nor was their belief of a partial
or a transitory nature. For, a page or two further
on; St. John observes, that the success of Jesus in
making disciples was so rapid and extensive that
the followers of the Baptist grew jealous for their
immediate master's fame, and came " arid said
unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond
Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold the
same baptizeth, and all men come to him." f
Again, when, a little afterwards, the five thousand
had been fed with the five barley-loaves, and had
gathered and filled twelve baskets with the frag-
ments which remained, they said, " This is of
a truth that prophet that should come into the
world ;" J and so strongly was this idea impressed
upon their minds, that they would have taken him
by force and made him a king. At the following
feast of Tabernacles we still find that " many of
the people believed on him, and said, When Christ
cometh will he do more miracles than those which
this man hath done ? Many of the people therefore
said, Of a truth this is the prophet. Others
said, This is the Christ." || The raising of Laza-
rus from the dead, confirmed at last and extended
these opinions so widely, that the Pharisees, who
were the continual, because interested, adversaries
of Jesus, became alarmed at the progress of the
*Johnii. 23. tJohniii. 26.
J John vi. 14. || John vii. 30, 40, 41.
Lect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 213
general sentiment in his favour, " and said,
What do we ? for this man doeth many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe
on him/' The prevalence of this opinion reached
its height and its termination at the last me-
lancholy Passover of his life. Then, "much
people that were come to the feast, when they
heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took
branches of palm-trees and went forth to meet
him, and cried, Hosannah, Blessed is the King of
Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. The
Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Be-
hold, the world is gone after him."*
Thus have we traced the rise and progress of
the notions of the Messiahship of Jesus amongst
the Jews, and found that they were dictated and
nourished by the splendor of his numerous and
wonderful miracles, which marked him out as
an extraordinary prophet of God, at that very
time in which all men were looking for the
Consolation of Israel. Jesus therefore seemed
most naturally to be pointed out as that Con-
solation, and was very generally regarded in that
light during the whole of his ministry, and up to
the time of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
The opinion had then attained to its greatest
* John xii,12 10.
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [lect. 9.
strength, but from that moment it declined and
vanished, and though he had done so many
miracles, yet, JJ as the Apostle remarks, " they
believed not on him" * any longer, or in his death.
The reason of this sudden and permanent change
we are next to investigate, and we shall find it to
have arisen from a supposed contradiction between
his claims and the ancient prophecies, a comparison
and correspondence between which \ have shewn
to be the only satisfactory method of proving
Jesus, though a prophet, to be the Christ.
It appears, then, that whatever might be the
ideas entertained by the Jews concerning Jesus
as the Christ, they were of the nature rather of
probable conjectures than firm and decided con-
victions in all, and there were also many who upon
every occasion denied the validity of his preten-
sions. " We know this man," said some, " whence
he is, but when Christ cometh no man knoweth
whence he is. Others said, This is the Christ.
But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee ?
Hath not the Scripture said that Christ cometh
of the seed of David, and out of the town of
Bethlehem where David was ? So there was a
division among the people because of him."f And
when our Lord afterwards endeavoured to prepare
* John xii, 37. t John vii. 27. 4143*
Lect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 215
them for his crucifixion, " signifying what death
he should die, the people answered him, "We have
heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever,
and how sayest thou, The Son of Man must be
lifted up?"*
Thus, we perceive, that as the opinions of the
Jews in favour of Jesus were founded upon the
miraculous proofs of his divine commission, their
doubt or rejection of his claims originated in some
apparent contradiction which they thought they
could discoverbetween the acts and circumstances
of his life and their own prevailing, and, in their
opinion, infallible interpretations of the predictions
relative to the Messiah. One of the most favourite
of these false expositions we find to have been
that the Law had said " that Christ abideth for
ever," that he should reign an eternally triumphant
king, a servant of the Lord, indeed, but one who
should prosper, and whose days should be pro-
longed upon the earth. When, therefore, they
beheld the Lord of Life lifted up between two
malefactors and slain, the current of their preju-
dices flowed back against his claims with an
unnatural force, and disappointment gave new
vigour and ferocity to their unbelief. He would
not come down from the cross to please them, and
so they would not believe that he had come up
* John xii, 33, 34,
S16 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. {Led. 9.
from the grave to save them. In his life they
allowed that he had done many miracles; but they
felt certain that in his death he had belied and
contradicted the predictions of that Messiah whose
name and honours he had assumed ; and therefore
they held, that as it is impossible to suppose that
a God of truth would set the seal of miracles to
a lie, they were bound both by their reason and
their religion, to attribute his astonishing works
to a demoniacal or delusive source, or any other
cause, rather than consider them as the authorized
acts of Almighty power. Had their expositions
of the prophecies been correct, their conclusion
also had been just. For they reasoned rightly
and upon right principles. If the actions, or doc-
trines, or pretensions of a man do really and indu-
bitably contradict the word of God, his miracles
may be magnificent, but can neither be divine nor
bear the marks of divine approbation. But these
true principles were, by the Jews, incorrectly and
presumptuously applied ; and falling into the error
of that unbeliever whose proud system we have
already rebuked, and setting up, like Collins, what
" seemed" to them to be the meaning of their
ancient predictions (but was not actually so) in
direct opposition to the assertions of Jesus, whose
doctrines and miracles they acknowledged to be
real and true, like Collins, they were permitted to
fall, because of pride, into a judicial blindness of
Lect. 9.] HULSEAU LECTUBES, 1820. 217
the understanding. Yea and even unto this day,
when Moses is read unto them, the vail remaineth
untaken away from their hearts.
It trenches not, then, in any respect upon the
force of the evidences of Christianity, nor upon
the consistency of the Gospel narrative, nor upon
the reality of the miracles of Jesus, nor upon the
truth of the history of his life, to find so entire and
sudden a rejection of his claims amongst the Jews ;
because the change may be clearly and conclusively
traced to their prejudiced and erroneous inter-
pretation of prophecy. The reality of his miracles
they never doubted, but finding him opposing, as
they imagined, the language of the prophets of
God, they denied him to be the Christ, and thought
themselves obliged to resist the divine origin of
his miraculous power. These things are written
for our instruction; and powerfully indeed do they
represent the necessity of guarding against every
false explanation of Holy Writ, of keeping our
minds open and in impartiality for the reception
of truth, and of doubting in humility our own,
that we may the more sincerely rely upon our
Redeemer's wisdom.
2. In the eighteenth book of the Jewish
Antiquities of Josephus is a passage, and it is
a passage which is to be found in every existing
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820^ [Lect. 9;
manuscript and copy of his works, which distinctly
records the name and actions of Jesus Christ.
Yet has it by many been rejected as the spurious
introduction of some later age.
" At that time," says the Historian, " lived
Jesus, a wise man, if he may be called a man ;
for he performed many wonderful works."
Had the testimony of Josephus stopped short
at this point, I could easily have admitted it as
genuine, whatever might have been the weight of
external testimony against it ; for thus far it con-
tains no more than might have been admitted by
the most prejudiced Jew. It speaks only of the
" wonderful works" of Jesus without attributing
to them any divine authority. But when the
passage goes on to state that, " This was the
Christ," and that he rose again from the dead ;
" the divine prophets having spoken of these and
a thousand other wonderful things concerning him,"
it is immediately convicted, by internal evidence, as
the unskilful forgery of some later Christian. The
very line of demarcation between the Christian
and Jew, is in the acknowledgment of Jesus as
the Christ, and his having fulfilled the predictions
of the divine prophets. Both admitted the reality
of his miracles, but their divine origin was held by
the Christian alone. The quotation, therefore,
iect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. 219
which we have made is internally condemned as
spurious by transgressing this line ; and when we
find that Origen has not only been silent as to its
existence, but has expressly asserted that Josephus
"did not believe Jesus to be the Christ," we
plainly perceive that it is a subsequent addition ;
because it positively declares it to have been the
opinion of Josephus that Jesus " was the Christ."
The force of external is thus added to that of
internal evidence, and the passage falls under the
immediate sentence of banishment as an inter-
polation. Josephus, as a Jew, could never have
written thus.
I call this then the second advantage to be de-
rived from the system of evidences we have pursued,
that it authorises us at once to reject this fancied
testimony of Josephus, as spurious. I speak of this
without hesitation as an advantage, because I
agree entirely with those learned men, both living
and dead, who think that many singular omissions
of this same historian in other parts of his works
his silence upon the massacre of Bethlehem, and
the miraculous darkness of the crucifixion, may be
most satisfactorily accounted for, when considered
as a wilful and premeditated silence. But wilful
and premeditated it could scarce have been, had
the passage now under our review been his own.
In that case it would have been difficult indeed to
220 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Ltd. 9.
have reconciled his omission with the truth of the
facts to which I allude.
3. The third and perhaps the most important
consequence to be drawn from a connected dis-
position of the several proofs by which the truth
of Christianity is supported may be found in its
tendency to press upon us the impropriety and
the danger of any partial and imperfect views of
evidence. It is not by miracles, or by doctrines,
or by prophecies alone, that the glorious Gospel
of our God is to be defended ; but it is by a cor-
dial union and a happy and philosophical com-
bination of the whole. Yet take up the small but
valuable treatise of Jenyns, and you will find him
casting the power and credibility of miracles into
the shade, in order to build up in their stead his
own favourite system of internal evidence. Pass
on to the warmer and more energetic reasoning of
Chalmers, and you will hear him " openly dis-
claiming all support from what is commonly un-
derstood by the internal evidence," and turning
away from every consideration of the credibility
of the message, to devote himself to an illustration
of the credibility of the messengers. Nay even in
the deeper pages of the mighty Barrow, we may
meet with symptoms of this partial and exclusive
spirit in setting forth the evidences of religion, and
observe with regret that he speaks, in his discourse
. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
upon the sufferings of Christ, of the proof from
prophecy, as one " which alone may assure any
man that such a person doth come from God, and
is in what he declareth or doeth approved by him."
Whether there be any one single argument which
is in itself sufficient to break down every barrier
of infidelity, and place the citadel of Christianity
at rest for ever from its foes, I presume not to
determine. The language of our Saviour's
answer to the Baptist would lead me to the
formation of a different opinion, and I cannot
but deem it to savour rather of boldness than
discretion for any one to assert that he could see
the Gospel "driven from all her defences and
surrender them without a sigh, so long as the
phalanx of her historical evidence remains im-
penetrable/' That ancient river, the river Nile,
that pours down its mighty waters over the
Egyptian land, and brings the blessings of fruit-
fulness in the overflowing of its waves, is fed,
not by one, but by many tributary streams ; and
vain and idle indeed should we account the pre-
sumption of that boastful traveller who, having
pushed his adventurous steps to the head of one
of its leading branches, should proclaim, in the
pride of discovery, that the spring to which he
had mounted was the only real source of its
majesty and power. There is not a rivulet, how-
ever mean, or nameless, that does not contribute
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 9.
its proportionate share in the production of the
great result ; nor is there one single argument,
however trivial, which has not its place and its
use in giving strength and beauty to the whole
system of evangelical demonstration. But we
remark in addition, that it is not less dangerous
than unwise, to build up the truth of the Gospel
upon some narrow foundation, and to attempt to
generate in the mind a disparaging view of any
other train of argument. He that has been
taught to hold the proof from prophecy or from
miracles as comparatively weak and insignificant
when compared with the reasoning which is
supplied by the internal evidences of the Gospel,
will, in the first place, be led to form an over-
weening notion of the importance of that par-
ticular branch of proof. In the second place, and
when, as will most probably be the case, he comes
afterwards to find out that this favourite argument
is possessed neither of the solidity nor the con-
clusiveness with which he had graced it in his
imagination, the undue and contemptuous opinion
which he has imbibed to the prejudice of every
other species of evidence, will leave him no sure
rock of refuge to flee to in his difficulties, and he
will fall, perhaps never to rise again. The same
evil must also follow, whatever be that particular
proof to which we give a partial and undivided
attention. But he who instead of devoting hia
Led. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
labours to the exclusive examination of some
scanty portion of the argument for Christianity,
employs his faculties in a free and a fair contem-
plation of the whole, will never be confounded by
the objections he may hear urged against any
insulated part ; but will still turn, in the hour of
danger, to the irresistible force of the whole body
of his reasoning; will still appeal to it as his
apology, and still rest upon it as his stay. For it
is not the lever or the wheel that forms the ma-
chine. It is not the eye, or the foot, or the
tongue, or the hand, that constitutes the strong
and living man ; but it is the intimate connection
and the judicious combination of them all. Sepa-
rate them from each other, and from that moment
their strength and their life are lost.
Go then, and the miracles and the doctrines and
the prophecies which the Lord did join together
in his answer, let no man henceforth dare to put
asunder in his own. Go, and when the infidel
shall ask you a reason of the hope that is in you,
tell him that you know both in whom and in what
you have trusted, and lay before him the full and
connected system of your proofs. Tell him, first
of all, that you believe that the things which are
written in the Gospel are true. If he ask you
why, tell him, that it is because these things were
written by the earliest and constant followers of
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect. 9.
our Lord ; and because those disciples shewed
their sincerity by their sufferings ; and because
you never can, and never will renounce your
belief in the testimony of men, whose virtue and
integrity are known ; who relate what they had
heard and seen ; of whom it is impossible to sup-
pose that they were deceived ; and who went
down to the grave, through the severest agonies,
maintaining with a firm and undaunted counte-
nance the same undeviating tale. Then lay
your Bible before him. Turn to the Gospel
itself, and recount to him the works of your
Saviour upon earth. Tell him they were works
of wonder, and therefore prove that there was in
his mind and in his arm the co-operating strength
and wisdom of a power superior to that which
belongs to our poor and simple humanity. If he
borrow the written language of the unbeliever*
to aid him in his defence, and ask you, "what
powers, whether supreme or subaltern, mortal or
immortal, wise or foolish, just or unjust, good or
bad ?" Tell him that, with you, there is in this no
mystery at all ; because the works of Jesus were
works of mercy as well as wonder ; and, there-
fore prove that the Father of mercy, as well as
of might, had sent him that he was a prophet
favoured above measure by God. Then, to
prove that Jesus was indeed worthy of such sup-
* Shaftesbury.
Lect. 9.] HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820.
port, let him learn the spirit of the Gospel by
precept and example too. Let him go to the
Mount and hear his Saviour commanding his
disciples to love their enemies, and then let him
go to the Cross and listen to that Saviour in prayer
for the forgiveness of his.
The Gospel and its miracles and its morality
having thus spoken for themselves, break to him
the seal of prophecy. Lay before him the great
scheme of Providence, from the foundation to the
end of the world. Point to our first parents,
fallen j wretched, banished, and just turning their
unwilling steps from the beauties and blessings of
a Paradise which they had lost through the dis-
obedience of unbelief, and relieved from despair
only by their confidence in the promise of a future
Redeemer. Next lead him to the faith of Abra-
ham, rewarded in the gracious declaration, that in
Isaac should his seed be called, and that in him
should all the nations of the earth again be blessed.
Carry him hence through Judah to the man after
God's own heart to David and to David's line.
But here the system will become too extensive for
particular consideration. Fix his thoughts, there-
fore, upon some powerful and leading feature.
Repeat to him, though it be through tears, the
mournful forebodings of Isaiah, concerning him
who was " acquainted with grief," as it were with
Q
226 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 9.
a familiar friend ; " whose visage was so marred"
with his griefs, " more than any man, and his
form more than the sons of men'* " who was
despised and rejected, wounded, bruised, op-
pressed, cut off out of the land of the living,"
and who in that death did seem to be so utterly
forsaken of his God, that men did absolutely
" esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted." Ask him, whether he deems this to be
a history or a prophecy? and if he refuse or
hesitate to answer, let him be assured that it is
the record of an ancient age that it was, and that
it still is, a prophecy, lamenting the continued
infidelity of men, and saying, " Who hath believed
our report ?" Then close the book, and tell him
that, with you, at least, it is a thing impossible,
that Christianity should be false ; that as Jesus
by his miracles and morals is proved to be a divine
prophet, so by the prophecies he may be proved
to be the Christ. Yet, should he still cling to an
evil heart of unbelief; should he flee to subtlety
and the vain deceits of philosophy for his defence
call to his remembrance, that it is at any rate
possible that Christianity may be true, and then
let him think how different, even upon that
ground, are the prospects of hope in him that
belie veth and in him that believeth not. For
what, and if we Christians should lean upon a
broken reed ? It is one too tender to wound the
Lect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820,
breast that leans upon it. What, and if there
should be no world to come? We know the
worst. Death is an eternal sleep, the grave a
place where all things are forgotten ; and so no
one can ever hereafter arise from the dust to
accuse us of credulity before God, or to punish us
for our reliance upon a Redeemer, or to ridicule
the daily self-denial with which we have practised
the graces of a Christian life. Or be it, that
there is a world to come, and that the creed of
the Deist should prove true, Still the Christian
is safe under the armour of his integrity. The
Deist boasts a merciful creed, and is confident
that the Lord will never visit with his wrath the
involuntary errors of the understanding, or be
extreme to mark what has been done or believed
amiss from motives of humility. If, then, there
be a God that judges the earth, doubtless he
will judge the Christian in pity, and according
to his sincerity. And if there be verily a reward
for the righteous, then will the Christian, who has
been devout before his Maker, pure in himself,
and bestowed charities upon men, be justified as
a righteous man, and receive a righteous man's re-
ward. But if the Gospel speaketh no lies; if Christ
really and truly came into the world to save sin-
ners, how shall we escape if we neglect so great
salvation ? If " he that believeth riot shall be
damned," then is the unbeliever " condemned
Q2
HUXSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [ecf.9,
already, because he has not believed on the only
begotten Son of God." As we value, therefore,
the privilege of our baptism into the kingdom of
God upon earth, and our hopes of admission into
the kingdom of God in heaven, our satisfaction
here and our safety hereafter let us cast away
the uncomfortable bonds of unbelief, and become,
not only almost, but altogether Christians. For
Christianity is a religion which speaketh peace on
earth, and good-will towards men. It is a religion
which, if universally practised, would raise the
world into a Paradise, and which, whether true
or false, can, at any rate, never make us miser-
able hereafter. The Deist may go to the place
of torment, and if the Gospel be the rule of
judgment, he will ; but, if Deism speak the will
of God, the sincere and holy Christian cannot but
be saved. Christianity, therefore, is better than
Deism, because it is safer.
But God forbid that I should close the merits of
Christianity by a reference to the cold and cheer-
less topic of its mere safety alone. It comes not
only with a shield against fear, but with a positive
blessing upon its disciples, which no other religion
can boast or promise. It is possessed of superior
motives, a more established certainty, and a
more glorious recompense. The Deist can only
hope that his reasoning upon the mercy of God is
Lect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. 229
correct, that his sins will be pardoned, and him-
self rewarded eternally according to his works.
But what merit have his works to raise that re-
ward into any powerful motive for the resistance
of temptation, the quenching of lust, or the hard
duty of self-denial in innocent things ? Unprofit-
able to God is the highest inscription that can
be written upon the most splendid and excellent of
the works of man, and the reward which can be
reasonably expected to descend upon unprofitable-
ness in the world to come will be too meagre to
animate our failing virtue, or give hope to the
Deist in the day of perplexity and distress. But
the Christian is strengthened, established, com-
forted, by views of a far loftier and more glorious
character. Instead of trust and hope, he feels an
assurance of forgiveness with God, and a reward
according to his works ; but then not a reward
according to those works when measured in the
scale of their own utility and greatness, but when
perfected and sanctified by the meritoriousness
of Christ. He looks, and he doth not look in
vain, for something which shall far transcend the
mere recompence of his profitableness in his ge-
neration. " Eye hath not seen" (how often do
we find fit occasion of reference to these words
of the Apostle !) " ear hath not heard, into the
heart of man it hath not entered to conceive, the
things which God hath prepared for them that
230 HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 9.
love him" an exceeding weight of glory which
fadeth not away. Compare with this joyful cer-
tainty of unspeakable honour and immortality,
the cold calculations of the Deist's creed, and
what shall we then say to the stability of his holi-
ness? That it is unsound that it is shadowy
that it rests upon no solid basis, and may yield
to the violence of a thousand storms over which
the believer in Jesus would ride in his tri-
umph gloriously. The virtue of the Deist may
be overpowered by sudden temptation, drowned
in forgetfulness and prosperity, weakened by
doubt, or dissipated by despair. And is there
nothing, then, we may ask, in the world and its
wickedness, which can endanger the Christian in
his even course ? We say not so ; but we hold
that there is to the Christian no temptation which
should be irresistible, no danger which he has not
a grace from within, and a motive from without,
to withstand ; a grace from within, in the support
and consolations of the Holy Ghost, and a motive
from without, in the amazing greatness of the
glory, and the honour, and the blessing, and the
immortality, which are laid up in store for all who
adore their Redeemer, and bring the tribute of
their obedience to his Kingly commands. Those
refreshings of the Spirit any Christian man may
have, if he will pray for them, and those motives
he may look to, if he like to indulge the sacred
Lect. 9.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 231
thought; and of this we are verily persuaded, that
if he will consider the end of his calling, and seek
for that aid which is from above, neither persecu-
tion, nor famine, nor the sword ; neither joy nor
sorrow ; neither riches nor poverty ; neither ho-
nour nor shame ; neither life nor death, nor any
other trial shall be able to separate him from his
love and obedience to the Lord. Blessed Christian,
heir of glory ! Thou hast sought it and it shall be
thine. "Wretched unbeliever, child of darkness !
Thou hast loved it and it shall happen unto thee,
and under darkness shalt thou be reserved in
everlasting chains unto the judgment of the great
and awful day.
DISCOURSE X.
t chap, xix, ver. 10.
" The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy"
OF the purity of the life and doctrines of our
Lord we have spoken as designating the divine
origin of his miraculous powers ; of those mira-
culous powers themselves we have pointed out the
peculiar utility and force, and to the predictions
of the Old Testament, as they were fulfilled in
the life and character of Jesus, we have paid
a particular and minute attention. But the spirit
of prophecy which rested upon Jesus himself,
those clear and absolute predictions of future
events which are recorded in the pages of the
New Testament, have not yet found a place in
our scheme. They form, however, so conspicuous
a feature in the contemplation of the contents
of the Gospel, and are so useful, as well as pro-
minent, in their application to the evidences of
Lect. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 233
Christianity, that were we to leave them in silence
or in obscurity, we should forego one of the
brightest and most impressive of all the argu-
ments which can be brought to bear upon the
infidelity of modern days, and become justly ob-
noxious to censure, for a fault which we have
already condemned the error of resting our
defence upon a very partial and imperfect esti-
mate of the strength and bulwarks of our faith.
There is no end to the labyrinth of scepticism.
The sceptic is one who has a conjecture for every
thing, and a belief in nothing. He shuts his eyes
to the force of moral proofs, and would rather
give one of his doubtful assents to the most un-
reasonable possibility, if against, than to the most
reasonable probability, if in favour of the Gospel.
When, therefore, we press upon his attention the
irresistible weight of testimony to the miracles of
our Lord, and urge the certainty of the argu-
ment which those miracles afford to the divine
authority of the religion for which they were
wrought, he answers that it is possible that
testimony may be false, and not probable that
miracles should be true. He holds some events
(as we have seen) "to be so extraordinary, that
they can hardly be established by any testimony."
He allows, however, that were he to become
himself a spectator of any extraordinary event, he
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Zcct. 10.
would no longer hesitate to admit it, however sin-
gular, or however, abstractedly speaking, improb-
able. Now we maintain, that the whole of this
reasoning is repugnant to the common sense of
mankind, and we think we have shewn it to be
altogether inapplicable to the miracles of the
Gospel.* But we rest not upon our own reasonings
alone. It is precisely at this point that the argu-
ment from prophecy is of most avail, and meets
the sceptic upon his own ground. The sceptic
himself allows -f that a prophecy fulfilled is neither
more nor less than a miracle. It is, in fact, the
sure and certain sign of a supernatural knowledge,
in the very same manner, and to the very same
extent, in which a common miracle is the sign of
extraordinary power ; and the founder of a new
and a holy religion who predicts the future, and
whose predictions are fulfilled, gives us as convinc-
ing and miraculous a proof of the divine origin of
that religion he proclaims, as by the restoration of
sight to the blind. For he who opens the eyes of
the blind, and he who opens the womb of futurity
do alike make men to see what they had never
seen before, and never otherwise would have been
able to see. If then we can prove in a manner
which ought to bring the satisfaction of the
* See Discourse IV.
t " Indeed all prophecies are miracles*'* HUME;
Lect. 10.] HULBEAN LECTURES, 1880. 835
sceptic himself, that the spirit of prophecy rested
upon Jesus, we shall have given a testimony to
his mission which he cannot but admit. If we
bring before his view a prophecy of our Saviour
fulfilling or fulfilled, we answer his own demand.
We make him spectator of a miracle, and give
him that, of which he talks so much, the testi-
mony of experience to the reality of a miraculous
event. We do more. We render also every
other miracle of our Saviour a probable occur-
rence, and capable of being established into cer-
tainty by the application of the commonest rules
of evidence ; and thus prove that the unequivocal
and disinterested testimony of the Evangelists is
as sufficient to prove the reality of the miraculous
as the ordinary works of our Lord. For it is highly
reasonable to suppose, that he who has done one
miracle may also have done more. It thus ap-
pears that one of the most signal advantages of
the spirit of prophecy is, as the Apostle expresses
it to be, "the testimony of Jesus/' to every ge-
neration to supply, by the continued wonder of
its fulfilment, the cessation of miraculous powers
in the Church to convince every age not only
of the probability but of the reality of the asto-
nishing works of Jesus, and throw in such a flood
of light and certainty upon the human and histo-
rical testimony in his favour, as to make it irre*
sistible to every unprejudiced mind.
236 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [lect. 10.
Now of the prophecies of our Saviour there are
various kinds recorded in the Gospel.
First, There are some of our Lord's predic-
tions which embraced but a very small portion of
the future in their terms, and whose completion
therefore was often immediate and almost mo-
mentary. Jesus said unto Peter, "Verily I say
unto thee, That this night before the cock crow,
thou shalt deny me thrice." The cock crew,
" and Peter remembered the words of Jesus,
which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou
shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and
wept bitterly.' 5 * On another occasion, he said
unto them, "Behold, when ye are entered into
the city, there shall a man meet you bearing a
pitcher of water, follow him into the house where
he entereth in. . . .And he shall shew you a large
upper-room furnished, there make ready. And
they went and found as he" had said unto them ;
and they made ready the passover.^t I could
produce a thousand examples of a similar kind,
so varied in their nature, so minute in their refer-
ence, and so intimately interwoven with the sur-
rounding narrative, that an unprejudiced mind
would feel it impossible to reject their testimony
to Jesus. But still they are not exactly adapted
to our present purpose, nor sufficiently convincing
* Malt, xxvi, 34, & 75. t Luke xxii, 10, 12, 13,
Led. 10.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 237
to tell upon the perverseness of modern infidelity.
Both in these and many other similar cases the
prediction and its fulfilment rest upon the same
testimony. The fulfilment, therefore, cannot pro-
perly or conclusively be made use of to establish
the credibility of that testimony. If a man bear
witness of himself, his witness is nothing in a
doubtful case. It is where the words of a pro-
phecy, and the fact of its completion are related
by different individuals, or drawn from different
and independent sources, that they can be brought
forward with the greatest triumph as proofs.
We must pass on, therefore, to some other exam-
ples of alleged prescience in Jesus.
In the second place, then, there is a class of
the predictions of our Lord, which, instead of
being confined to the compass of a few hours or
years, imply his knowledge of things to come,
even in the very end of the world and time. He
speaketh thus. * " When the Son of Man shall
come in his glory and all the holy angels with
him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his
glory." And before him shall be gathered all
nations; and he shall separate them one from
another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from
the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right
hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall
* Matt. xxvi. 31.
S38 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [ieei.10.
the King say unto them on his right hand, Come
ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Then shall he say also unto them on his left
hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting-
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."
Herein have we revealed to us the hidden things
of the Almighty ; the glory, the circumstances,
the sentence, and the name of the judge who
shall pronounce their final doom upon the evil
and the good. But who can know these things
of God, save God himself, and those to whom he
hath vouchsafed to reveal them. Such, then, also
ought to be our conclusion here. There is no
sign of falsehood or of ignorance no trace of
enthusiasm ; no wild workings of the imagina-
tion; no gaudy metaphors no lofty language
^ no artificial rhetoric to show how he laboured
in the conception and utterance of his thoughts.
Jesus speaks as one familiar with the scene.
The subject seems within liis comprehension and
his grasp. There is no darkness or indistinctness
in his picture. Truth and light and reality are
impressed upon every part ; and we feel in the
composure, and the simplicity, and the minuteness
and the reasonableness of the delineation, a con-
vincing evidence, that he was speaking according
to his experience, and knew both what he did say
and whereof he did affirm. But strong as this
Led. 10/j HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. $89
internal evidence is, it is yet a sort of evidence
to which the sceptic will refuse to bend his stub-
bornness or waywardness. He will perhaps tell
us, that, however probable, this prophecy is as yet
unfulfilled, and may never be fulfilled at all. Or
he will transmute it into a mere figurative repre-
sentation of the existence of a future state of
retribution, which he will say might have been
learnt from philosophy alone. "We must bring the
infidel, therefore, to some class of prophecies where
there is no room for conjecture, and where the cer-
tainty of the prediction having preceded the event,
and the certainty of the event having fulfilled the
prediction, leave him no other conclusion than
this that the utterer of the prediction foresaw
and spake of the event, ere it did come to pass.
Now of this third species of prophecies, we
shall find two instances most particularly pre-
eminent, in the declarations which our Lord is
recorded to have made ; first, with regard to the
utter and eternal destruction of the city of the
Jews; and, secondly, with regard to the establish-
ment and perpetuity of the Christian Church.
These prophecies comprehend the whole period
of time and events from the moment in which they
are said to have been uttered, down to the final and
universal triumph of the kingdom of Christ. Part
of both has already been fulfilled. Part of both is
240 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 10.
fulfilling under our own eyes, and part still remains
incomplete; and thus altogether they present a
chain of proof which must bind down the infidel
to meet the real question and leave him no sub-
terfuge or escape, by urging the possibility of
deception. To these two prophecies, then, it is,
that I would now turn your attention, and though
both have been so frequently illustrated, I must
confess that I never turn to them again without
gathering new confidence in my faith, and new
hope in my calling.
1. To know the future, as it relates to this
world, is, in general, only to know more of the
wickedness and wretchedness of this world than
other men do, and thus to add one more to the
many complicated and unavoidable causes of hu-
man grief. It was so with the man of God when
standing before Hazael, and foreboding the evil
which he would bring upon Israel, he fixed his
countenance upon him stedfastly until he wept.
It was so with Jesus when, standing before Jeru-
salem, he foresaw that her house would be left
unto her desolate. " When he was come near/'
says the Evangelist St. Luke,* " he beheld the
city and wept over it, saying, if thou hadst known,
even thou, in this thy day, the things which be-
long unto thy peace ! But now they are hid from
* Luke xix, 4>1,
Ltd. 10,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 241
thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee
that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee,
and compass thee round about, and keep thee in
on every side ; and shall lay thee even with the
ground, and thy children within thee ; and they
shall not leave in thee one stone upon another,
because thou knewest not the time of thy visita-
tion." "In those days/' as he afterwards observes,*
" there shall be great distress in the land, and
wrath upon this people ; and they shall fall by the
edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
into all nations ; and Jerusalem shall be trodden
under foot of the Gentiles, until the time of the
Gentiles be fulfilled."
The accomplishment of this prophecy of our
Saviour in the full and final destruction of Jeru-
salem and her inhabitants and in their present
state, forms one of the most interesting and
instructive portions of the history of the world
which can fall under the contemplation of a Chris-
tian, and it is this fulfilment which we are now to
proceed to consider, so far as it may tend to con-
firm our faith and improve our virtue. To enter
into all the various and minute particulars which
were foretold and suffered, would carry me far
beyond the limits of custom and propriety. It will
* Luke xxi. 23.
R
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [LecJ.10.
be enough, to make a few remarks upon some of
the most singular and striking circumstances, and
then to draw from them those instructions and
warnings which they so powerfully enforce.
First of all, then, it is impossible not to mark
the care and goodness of God, in recording the
fulfilment as well as the words of this memorable
prophecy. We have before observed, that, to
give to the completion of any prophecy its full force
as an argument in favour of the prophet's divine
authority, it would be better that the completion
should be recorded by some individual distinct
from the promulgator of the prediction itself, and
the more unconnected the two individuals are, the
more conspicuous will be the testimony. Now
this is most completely the case here. The same
Providence by which these events were made
known unto Jesus, and the same spirit by which
he was commissioned to reveal them to mankind,
raised up from among the very Jews themselves,
a being, who was as yet unborn when the pre-
diction was delivered, to relate its accomplishment
in every part, and confirm to the latest genera-
tions the truth of the Gospel. Josephus was by
birth an Israelite, and by the accidents of his life
an eye-witness of all the misery which befel his
country and his brethren, and so clear and com-
prehensive is the account which he has given us
Led. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 243
of the nature of their sufferings, that there is not
one single expression of our Saviour, in the
passages I have quoted, which does not appear
to have been exactly and literally fulfilled. The
resemblance, indeed, is sometimes so strong that
the very words of the history and of the prophecy
are almost the same. Yet there cannot here be the
shadow of a suspicion as to the faithfulness of the
testimony, or to any interpolation in the works of
Josephus. For the correspondence in this case
pervades the whole tissue of his writings, and be-
fore we can tear away the support he gives to the
fulfilment of the prediction against Jerusalem, we
must destroy the entire web of his history. Least
of all, however, could it be the intention of Jose-
phus thus to bear witness to the authority of Jesus.
The historian was the enemy of the prophet and
of his religion ; and has studiously avoided, as we
have already pointed out, and as far as the fidelity
of his narrative would permit, every mention of
those circumstances which might have a tendency
to increase the prevalence of the Christian sect.
There is much force and much reason for thank-
fulness in this observation, because it teaches us
the superintending wisdom of our heavenly Father
in overruling the words, as well as the works of
man, and his abundant kindness in supplying us
with the best and most unsuspicious means of
becoming acquainted with the minutest occur-
R2
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 10.
be enough, to make a few remarks upon some of
the most singular and striking circumstances, and
then to draw from them those instructions and
warnings which they so powerfully enforce.
First of all, then, it is impossible not to mark
the care and goodness of God, in recording the
fulfilment as well as the words of this memorable
prophecy. We have before observed, that, to
give to the completion of any prophecy its full force
as an argument in favour of the prophet's divine
authority, it would be better that the completion
should be recorded by some individual distinct
from the promulgator of the prediction itself, and
the more unconnected the two individuals are, the
more conspicuous will be the testimony. Now
this is most completely the case here. The same
Providence by which these events were made
known unto Jesus, and the same spirit by which
he was commissioned to reveal them to mankind,
raised up from among the very Jews themselves,
a being, who was as yet unborn when the pre-
diction was delivered, to relate its accomplishment
in every part, and confirm to the latest genera-
tions the truth of the Gospel. Josephus was by
birth an Israelite, and by the accidents of his life
an eye-witness of all the misery which befel his
country and his brethren, and so clear and com-
prehensive is the account whjch he has given us
Lect. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. 243
of the nature of their sufferings, that there is not
one single expression of our Saviour, in the
passages I have quoted, which does not appear
to have been exactly and literally fulfilled. The
resemblance, indeed, is sometimes so strong that
the very words of the history and of the prophecy
are almost the same. Yet there cannot here be the
shadow of a suspicion as to the faithfulness of the
testimony, or to any interpolation in the works of
Josephus. For the correspondence in this case
pervades the whole tissue of his writings, and be-
fore we can tear away the support he gives to the
fulfilment of the prediction against Jerusalem, we
must destroy the entire web of his history. Least
of all, however, could it be the intention of Jose-
phus thus to bear witness to the authority of Jesus.
The historian was the enemy of the prophet and
of his religion ; and has studiously avoided, as we
have already pointed out, and as far as the fidelity
of his narrative would permit, every mention of
those circumstances which might have a tendency
to increase the prevalence of the Christian sect.
There is much force and much reason for thank-
fulness in this observation, because it teaches us
the superintending wisdom of our heavenly Father
in overruling the words, as well as the works of
man, and his abundant kindness in supplying us
with the best and most unsuspicious means of
becoming acquainted with the minutest occur-
R2
HULSEAN LECTURES, 18SO. [Lect. 10,
rences in that portion of the revolutions of the
world, which, of all others, it is, perhaps, the most
important for us to know.
The first of the woes which our Saviour pro-
nounced upon Jerusalem was, that she should
suffer the evils of a siege. " The days shall come
upon thee that thine enemies shall cast a trench
about thee and compass thee round, and keep thee
in on every side." There could not be a more
plain and distinct description of a besieged city,
nor could language more accurate have been
found to describe the actual state of the city of
Jerusalem when, for the fifth and last time, she
was taken by foreign foes . Ca?sar and his host did
encompass her round, and to prevent all hope of
escape to her miserable children, they began and
accomplished in the space of three days, the
mighty task of surrounding her with a wall, which
went out from the camp of the enemy and re-
turned to it again ; and every avenue to flight was
guarded, both by night and by day, with the
utmost caution and a perpetual vigilance. Are not
these the words of Jesus, " They cast a trench
about her, and kept her in on every side ?"
The second particular to which our Saviour
directs the attention of his disciples is, the com-
plete success which would attend the efforts of the
Lect. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1880.
enemies of Jerusalem. "They shall" not only
" keep thee in on every side," says he, " but they
shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy
children within thee ; and they shall not leave in
thee one stone upon another. There shall be
great distress in the land, and wrath upon this
people, and they shall fall by the edge of the
sword." Many cities have been taken and after-
wards flourished in all their former splendor and
magnificence ; and many nations have been sub-
dued without feeling the vengeance of the con-
querors. Jerusalem herself had already four
times fallen into the hands of strangers, and yet
survived or risen again from her ruins. Pompey
had triumphed with his Romans over the land,
and yet sent forth no angel of destruction, no
decree of blood. He vanquished, but he spared.
But here we have a positive prediction of that
which no Roman example could have taught men
to expect, the utter desolation of the city when
taken, and an express condemnation of her in-
habitants to slaughter and the grave. And it
was so. Flame and famine, and pestilence
and division, and the sword, were, day by day,
slaying their thousands, and ten thousands, in
her streets; and young and old, and women
and children, became the victims of one indis-
criminate ruin. Truly " there was distress in
the land, and wrath upon that people" in those
246 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1S0. [Led. 10.
days, and grievously " they did fall by the edge
of the sword."
Worn out and weakened, at length, by the
excess of their misery, and the slaughter of the
destroying angel, the enemies of Jerusalem pre-
vailed, and she was given over into the will and
power of strangers. It was their wish, and one
would have thought it might have been in their
power, after they had taken her, to have spared
her beauty and her splendor, and to have pre-
served her buildings and her temple untouched
and uninjured, as a monument to posterity of the
greatness and the might of those by whom she
had been vanquished. But a stronger hand than
theirs the hand of God, and the word of him
who ruleth in the kingdoms of men according to
his own will and not theirs, were against her.
Her towers, her walls, her palaces, the beautiful
gate of her temple and her holy place were all
thrown down and laid even with the ground.
Even the very foundations of the city and the
temple were dug up, and the ploughshare passed
over the glory of that house which the wisdom of
Solomon had built, and the wisdom of Jesus
adorned. That holy tabernacle, before which
the Redeemer worshipped and the Redeemer
taught, we know not now with certainty where it
was ; for in deed and in truth they have not left in
Lect. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 247
her " one stone upon another" to tell the traveller
the exact spot upon which the beauty of these
goodly buildings stood. Each conjectures for
himself and satisfies nobody. Man then laboured
to avert, as I have said, a destruction so signal
and sad, but he laboured in vain, because he
laboured against the sure word of prophecy. It
came to pass, as the Lord had spoken, and be-
cause the city of David knew not the hour of her
visitation, that " behold her house is left unto
her desolate."
Thus fully, thus literally, thus awfully, were
accomplished the predictions of our Saviour upon
the city over which he wept ; and much there is
in what we have already considered, to bow down
the pride of the most stubborn heart in humble
reverence before the authority of the Gospel.
But we have not finished the theme of triumph.
We have still to examine what is to us the most
wonderful and irresistible part of the prophecy
that part I mean whose accomplishment is taking
place in our own days, and though still fulfilling,
is still unfulfilled. " Thy children," says Jesus,
" shall not only fall by the edge of the sword,
but they shall also be led away captive into all
nations" and have dominion in the land of Israel
no more, until the kingdoms of the world shall
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1880. [Lect. 10
Christ ; " Jerusalem shall be trodden under foot
of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be
fulfilled," saith the Lord. Is it so? Here is a
positive and perpetual fact proposed to mankind
as a test and sign by which every one may judge
of the truth of the Gospel by which he lives. It
is long since the ruin of Jerusalem, and many
years and ages have passed away since they laid
her even with the ground, and her children within
her; and the unbeliever, who loveth darkness
rather than light, may, perhaps, doubt or deny the
evidence we have hitherto produced. He may
talk of the possibility of the prophecy being
framed after the event or he may throw out
any other of those numerous insinuations in which
scepticism so largely deals. But here is a living
witness to confound his plausibilities, and prove
that whenever and by whomsoever written, it is,
in truth, a prophecy. Jerusalem is and has been
trodden under foot of the Gentiles ever since the
day of her desolation, and, as yet, the time of the
Gentiles has not been fulfilled. Roman Gentiles
annihilated the city and policy of the Jews, and
Christian or Mahometan Gentiles succeeded to
their inheritance. This is not chance, this is
not accident, but providence. The ruler of the
Roman world* did once, in the madness of
* The attempt and failure of the Emperor Julian to rebuild
Jerusalem and its temple, are well known, and have been
treated in a masterly manner by Warburton.
LecL 10,] HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. 249
sumption, endeavour to contravene this decree,
and did set up his counsel and might against the
denunciation of the Ruler of the kingdom of
heaven; but his counsel and his might were
brought to nought. With all the power of the
Roman world at his command, he did fail ; and
whether we attribute his failure to a miraculous
or an ordinary cause, the fact still remains the
same. Even to this very moment, Gentiles, nei-
ther of the race nor the religion of Judah, are
the masters of Jerusalem, and her faded splen-
dor and her ruined walls too plainly speak how
cruelly and disdainfully they have trodden her
under their feet. Jerusalem is in her adversity ;
but wasted as she is, she yet bears, in her lost
estate, an everlasting testimony to the Gospel of
our God ; and her children also bear witness with
her. Go where you will, and in every nation
under heaven, in the east and in the west, in
the north and in the south, in the snowy
mountain and in the sandy desert, in every city
and almost in every village, you will behold the
face of some exiled Israelite, fulfilling, in his
destiny, the prophecy of the Lord. There is
something peculiarly remarkable and apparently
providential in this universal dispersion of the
people of God. They are to be found in all
nations, and in all nations they are found despised
and rejected of men, without a home and without
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 10.
a country ; without the rights or the protection
of other citizens. Still there are some places in
which they are less hated and oppressed than in
others ; and under the mild and paternal govern-
ment of our native land they have nothing to fear
and less to suffer than in any other country in the
world. Why then do they not gradually quit
those lands of their oppressors to seek for safety
in this rock of comparative refuge and peace.
It is the common dictate of human nature to flee
from distress and seek comfort and security
wherever they may be found, no matter in what
country or in what clime. "Why then does not
the Jew avoid tfie fury of a German populace, the
barbarity of the chieftains of Africa, and the
grinding exactions of Turkish avarice, by raising
the tabernacle of his rest under the influence of
the freedom and protection of Britain's laws?
Or why, if in all countries he is condemned to
suffer why does he not turn his steps towards
the land of his fathers after which he sighs, and
endeavour to console his sorrows by living and
dying in that Judea, and beside that Jordan,
which he loves? Such would be the natural
conduct of common men. But the Jew acts not
thus. Oppressed and persecuted, he still con-
tinues to live where he has lived, and grows and
multiplies in adversity without the thought of
change. Neither tribulation, nor anguish, nor
Led. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
hatred, nor distress, nor even the fear of death
itself can drive him away from the soil in which
chance has planted the habitation of his .misery.
Now it is for this singularity in his conduct
that we have to account. That the Jew alone
should remain uninfluenced by those motives
which operate upon the mass of mankind ; that
the Jew alone should act contrary to our general
experience of the rest of the world, to what can
we ascribe it, but to the providential dispen-
sation of God ? "Why is it, but that he is im-
moveably fixed and rooted, as it were, by the
never-failing word of prophecy, to the soil on
which he dwells ? Why is it that he flees not
back to the land of his fathers, but because
Jesus hath said, that he shall be led captive into
" all nations." And why does he not strive for
the possession of Jerusalem again, but because
the same Jesus hath said, that " Jerusalem shall
be trodden under foot of the Gentiles, until the
time of the Gentiles be fulfilled." Yea, and for
the same reason it is, that he that did once strive
to restore it to these children of vengeance, did
strive in vain.
I here close the comparison between the pro-
phecy of Jesus and the history of Jerusalem and
the Jews ; and now let us turn to the application
and doctrine which it affords.
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [LecMO.
The tale is melancholy indeed, but it is deeply
instructive also. It confirms the validity of the
other evidences for Christianity beyond the. reach
of cavil, and gives to the name and faith of the
Christian a firmness and a dignity which none of
his adversaries shall be able to cast down. They
may talk of conjecturing from reason and the
nature of the case, that Jerusalem when con-
quered, would remain subject to her victors ; but
the remark is idle and inapplicable. The pre-
diction uses not the language of conjecture and
probability, but of assurance and certainty. It
says not interrogatively, " and shall she not be
trodden under foot of the Gentiles ?" Neither
does it speak doubtingly, as if she might ; but it
declares positively that she "shall be trodden
under foot of the Gentiles." Again, it limiteth a
certain time for her humiliation, saying, " Until
the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled/' This posi-
tiveness as to the fact, united with this limitation
as to the time, is after the manner, not of a
reasoner, but of a prophet ; and all the testimony,
therefore, which the spirit of prophecy can bear
to an individual, it bears to the Author of this
prediction. What the precise nature and value
of that testimony may be, must be left for con-
sideration in a future discourse. I have found
it so pleasing, and perhaps so easy a task, to
lengthen out the comparison between the history
Lect. 10,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 253
of Jerusalem, and the prediction of Jesus that
I can only venture, before I conclude, to notice
two of the moral inferences to which it leads.
The first of these is, that we learn from it a
lesson of the purest and most exalted patriotism.
Twice only is it written in the Gospel that Jesus
wept. Once was for the death of Lazarus whom
he loved, and once for the destruction of the city
which hated him ; and therein he has taught us
the greatness and the depth of that love which we
too should bear unto the land of our nativity
It is not because our efforts are unrewarded, or
our talents unpraised. It is not because we rise
not in our professions and reach not the honours
and emoluments at which we aim, that we are
permitted to shrink from the duty of loving our
country or doing it good. So long as we can be
useful to the age and generation and country in
which we are born, so long must we labour with
fidelity in our appointed station, even though it
be through hatred and calumny and scorn. We
are not to measure our love to others by their
love to us, because even publicans and sinners
do the same. I know no political virtue which
is more neglected than this. It is the fashion of
common patriots to pray for the peace of Jerusa-
lem only whilst they are walking in the sunshine
of her favour ; only whilst they rule her counsels
254 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect.lQ,
or are fed by her bounty. When injured they
forget her benefits, decry her institutions, and
no longer feel an interest in her fate. But Jesus
thought and acted otherwise. " I say unto you,
Love your enemies ; do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them that despitefully use you,
and persecute you, that ye may be the children
of your Father which is in Heaven." These had
been the words of Jesus, and by transplanting the
graces which he recommended into the works of
his life, he shewed that he was indeed the child
of his Father which was in heaven. For he did
do good to the country that despised him. He
did bless them that cursed him, and did pray for
the people that evily entreated and persecuted him
even unto death. He did love the city that hated
him even in her unkindness he loved her, and
mourned, as a patriot, over those coming days of
vengeance, which, as a prophet, the page of
futurity unfolded to his view. He beheld her
beauty, he remembered her iniquity, he foresaw
her punishment, and tears of pity and of anguish
fell from his eyes, when he did think upon her
fate. Yet what had Jerusalem done for Jesus that
he should thus feel and express for her the tender-
ness and affection of a son ? He had not where
to lay his head ; and yet she gave it him not. He
was despised and rejected of men ; and yet she
received him not, Nay, even in that very hour in
Led. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 255
which he was thus wishing for her conversion,
and weeping for her woes, he might almost have
seen, from the Mount of Olives, on which he
stood, her rulers corrupting the traitor to betray
his Master, and almost have heard the workman
putting his hand to the hammer, and the hammer
to the nail, to form the cross upon which he was
to suffer for mankind. Jerusalem had ever been
the enemy of Jesus, and she was now about to
become his ruin and his grave ; and this he knew ;
and yet, " when he was come near he beheld the
city and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst
known even thou, in this thy day/' Oh, that
even thou my persecutor and my murderer hadst
known before it be too late, " the things which
belong unto thy peace/' for then might I have
been blessed in seeing thee converted, and saved
from the evil hour ! He looked upon her wicked-
ness and wretchedness, and he wept for, and
warned her of both ; and the sadness of his soul
may be gathered both from his manner and his
language. Thus was the salvation of his country,
the desire of the heart, and the prayer of the lips,
as it had ever been, the labour of the life, of the
injured Jesus ; and we may search in vain amongst
the records of mankind for any equal example of
love to the land of our nativity*
But the city of David had closed her eyes that
256 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 10.
she could not see, and shut up her ears that she
could not hear, the things which belonged unto
her peace. In the hardness of an impenitent and
unbelieving heart, she crucified her Saviour and
her God, and all was fulfilled, from the greatest
even unto the least of the woes which had been
denounced upon her : and hence it is, that we
gather the second of our moral inferences -that
we may read in the ruin of Jerusalem a warning,
to beware of Jerusalem's sins. The woe was
indeed for her, and for her inhabitants alone ; but
the moral is for us and for our children for ever.
For what were the Jews ? A nation. So are we.
A nation to whom the oracles of God were com-
mitted. Why, so are we. A nation who had every
means afforded to them of improving the gift.
And so have we. A nation who neglected to im-
prove the gift unto their own salvation, and were
therefore visited, in vengeance, with calamity and
death. And so also may we be visited unless we
cease from their sins. They despised the religion
and person of Jesus. They would none of his
counsel and they obeyed none of his command-
ments, and they gave no heed unto his words,
and no reverence unto his name. They rejected
and crucified the Lord of Life, and filled up the
measure of their forefathers' iniquity ; and be-
hold they are driven as wanderers over the face
of the whole earth. Sins, like theirs, may be
Led, 10] HULSEAU LECTURES, 1820, 25?
done in every age ; and sufferings like theirs, may
fall upon any nation. To despise the religion
and the person of the Son of God ; to deny his
divinity ; to forget his laws ; to hate his followers,
and to crucify the Son of God afresh in the
wickedness of our lives are crimes which are
confined to no rank, or station, or country ; and
it is always in the will of a Holy, and the power
of an Almighty God, to punish the evil-doers for
the evil they have done. The Gentile, as well
as the Jew, may sin against his Redeemer and
his God ; and, like the Jew, be scattered abroad
in the breath of God's anger ; and this city, in
whose goodly buildings we glory and we dwell,
may forego the things which belong unto her
peace, as easily as the city of Jerusalem did ; and
like that devoted city, may be levelled with the
ground, and her children within her. For what
merit hath the Gentile more than the Jew ; or
what city of the earth can have more claims for
mercy, than the towers and the temple of Jerusa-
lem ? This record at least we must bear unto the
nation, that Jerusalem was the chosen seat, and
the Jews the chosen people of God ; and I never
think of the glory of their descent and their elec-
tion, without feeling for them the reverence which
is due to an elder brother in the faith. I never
meet with one of these monuments of God's in-
dignation and wrath, walking in loneliness through
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 10.
the streets and multitudes of a mighty population,
without turning my mind instinctively to the
words and warnings of St. Paul.* " If God
spared not the natural branches, take heed, lest
he also spare not thee. Behold, therefore, the
goodness and severity of God ; on them which
fell, severity ; but towards thee, goodness, if thou
continue in his goodness ; otherwise thou also
shalt be cut off. For because of unbelief they
were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be
not therefore high-minded, but fear." Trust not
in the sophisms of human reason, the weak-
ness of human strength, or the frailty of human
virtue ; but fear -fear to offend the Maker, the
Hedeemer, the Judge of all. Fear to forfeit the
gentle and enlightening influences of the Sancti-
fier. Fear to tread under foot the Son of God,
and count the blood of the covenant an unholy
thing. But, above all, fear the loss of your own
immortal souls; and fear to depend, for their
salvation, upon any thing but the sacrifice of the
Cross, and the merits, and the mediation, and
the power of Jesus Christ; "for of him, and
through him, and to him, are all things."f
Remember also, lastly, that the vices of Jerusa-
lem were the very cause of its ruin, the source
from which its misfortunes sprung, and by which
its evils were aggravated and enlarged. Her
* Horn. xi. 21, 22, &. 20, t Rom. xi. 3.6.
Led. 10.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 259
perversions of Scripture; her pollution of the
fountain of truth ; her reliance upon man and
herself; her pride, her worldliness, her wicked-
ness ; her false, her carnal, her ambitious views
of the Messiah's character, were the origin of all
that fatal obstinacy in error, and of all that incur-
able blindness to better and holier things which
brought upon her a load of such merited wretch-
edness, as neither the warnings of her Saviour,
nor the wishes and labours, even of her enemies,
were able to avert. " His blood be upon us,
and upon our children," was the fearful impre-
cation of these lost ones upon themselves ; and
the vengeance they called for, it came. These are
memorials for every generation of man to muse
upon, and speak to us in a language, which if
we will but think, we cannot but understand ;
a caution to watch with a godly sincerity over
our waywardness, to beware of the corruptions of
human reasoning, to subdue the thoughts into an
early obedience to the doctrines of Scripture,
to hold fast to the naked simplicity of the Gos-
pel, and to guard the genuine truth of God
with uninterrupted care and diligence, lest, after
having often desired to gather us under his wings,
and we would not, he should at last cast us
away utterly from his presence, and our house,
like that of Jerusalem, should be left unto us
desolate.
s 2
DISCOURSE XL
REV. chap, xix, ver. 10.
" The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy "
II. I COME now to the second of those predic-
tions of our Saviour to which I alluded, as bearing
testimony through every succeeding generation,
that he was indeed endued with the spirit of
prophecy, and as affording to the sceptic an ex-
peri mental solution of those doubts, which he
professes to entertain with regard to the proba-
bility of real miracles.
It is not always, though it is most generally,
the case, that scenes of suffering and distress are
presented to the view of the prophet in his visions.
The world is a state of mingled happiness and
misery; its history a series of mingled disap-
pointment and success, Whilst our Saviour,
therefore, with one glance of his foreboding eye
beheld the destruction of Jerusalem, and the dis-
Lect. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
persion of her people, because they had rejected
his person and despised his claims ; another and
a more consolatory view presented to his mind
the picture reversed; and he looked with the
triumph of a spiritual conqueror upon the gradual
rise and progress of his religion, and the perpe-
tuity of its existence upon the earth under every
trial, and against all opposition. He looked upon
the victory of the Gospel over the prejudices of
the Jew, the contempt of philosophy, the persecu-
tion of power, and the offences of weak or per-
verted brethren; and rejoicing in spirit at the
glory of the prospect, broke forth into the lan-
guage of holy gladness and divine assurance.
" Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And. Jesus
answered and said unto him, And I say also unto
thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock
I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell
shall not prevail against it."* Here we have a
prediction, which comprehends the entire history
of the Christian Church, from its first foundation
to its final triumph, and which has been fulfilled
in its former and is still fulfilling in its latter part,
with a clearness which leaves no room for hesita-
tion as to its having proceeded from one who
could look into the ages which hereafter should
be, and, contemplating the future, as an historian
* Matt. xvi. 17, 18.
262 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 11,
does the past, could speak of the things which
were not yet, as though they had already been.
To the former part of this prediction, which
speaks of the foundation of the Christian Church,
no less than three several interpretations have
been assigned by different commentators, in
every one of which it has pleased the goodness
of God that, for our satisfaction, it should be
fulfilled. Some have conceived that when our
Saviour spoke of the rock upon which the
Christian Church should be built, he pointed
and referred to himself, as the only true and
spiritual rock of believers in every age ; and
this exposition may be fully justified by the lan-
guage of St. Paul,* who solemnly warns the
Corinthians against laying or building on "any
other foundation than that is laid, which is Jesus
Christ." Unusual also as may appear the manner
in which our Lord is thus supposed to allude to
himself, it is completely sanctioned by his ex-
pressions in another and very memorable pro-
phecy. " Destroy this temple," said Jesus to
the Jews, " and in three days I will raise it up."f
Now this they understood of the temple of Jeru-
salem ; but this " he spake of the temple of his
body/' says the Evangelist, which they did de-
stroy, and which he did raise up again from the
* 1 Cor. iii. 11. t John ii. 1021.
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTUHES, 1S20. 263
dead. Whether, therefore, we consider the form
or the meaning of the phrase, this exposition may
be allowed to be both critically admissible and
substantially true. The words will bear the sense
alleged, and in that sense were strictly fulfilled.
Jesus is indeed the rock of the faith of his Church,
the only solid foundation upon which all we live
by and look to is built.
By a second class of interpreters, this rock of
foundation for the Church is applied to that
doctrine of the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus,
which was contained in the confession of Peter.
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,"
said that Apostle. " And upon this rock I will
build my Church," answered the Lord, and this
faith is indeed the foundation of the whole build-
ing of Christianity. " What cloth hinder me to be
baptized ?" asked the Ethiopian eunuch ?* And
Philip said, " If thou believest with all thine heart,
thou mayest. And he answered, and said, I be-
lieve that Jesus Christ is the Son of God." This
is the very confession, and these are almost the
very words of Peter. Here then we have another
interpretation in which the expressions of our
Lord may be fairly taken, and were legitimately
fulfilled ; for upon this belief in the Messiahship
and derivation of Jesus from God, as upon a rock,
* Acts via. 36.
264 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. \Lect. li-
the living stones of the temple of his body* the
members of the Church, which is the assembly of
the first-born, both ever have been, and ever
must be built.
There is still a third, and perhaps a more
probable interpretation than either of the former,
which considers St. Peter himself as the founda-
tion-stone of the Church of Christ. " Thou art
Peter, and upon this rock" or stone " I will build
my church," was at once a promise and a pro-
phecy from Jesus. Now the intimacy in which
the two ideas are connected together, and the
pointedness of the allusion to the name of Peter
" which is by interpretation a stone," * imme-
diately and almost necessarily persuade us to
regard the Apostle as the object intended to be
designated under that peculiar emblem. Nor was
the fulfilment less conspicuous than the propriety
of the denomination ; for by the efforts of Peter
were formed the first beginnings both of the
Jewish and Gentile Church.
But why should we be compelled to confine
ourselves to any one of these modes of interpre-
tation, when it is evident, first, that Jesus in the
boundlessness of his wisdom might contemplate
them all, and, secondly, that the prediction was
* John i. 42.
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 265
not only literally and separately fulfilled in each,
but that the original foundations of the Christian
Church were laid in the combined completion of
the whole. It was Peter who first lifted up his
voice on the day of Pentecost,* and let all the
house of Israel know that God had made that
same Jesus, whom they had crucified, " both Lord
and Christ." Such was the substance of those
many words with which he " did testify and
exhort" the men of Judea to repent and be bap-
tized ; and by the piercing power of this appeal
" they were pricked to the heart, and the same
day there were added unto them about three
thousand souls. "f Now this we are authorised
to consider as the very first foundation of the
Christian Church, not only because it is the first
instance of the conversion of any considerable
number of persons to the faith of Jesus as the
Messiah, but also because it seems to have been
regarded, by the sacred writers themselves, as the
first regular formation of Christians into a distinct
religious body. Frequently as the word Church
is to be met with in the pages of the New Testa-
ment, we meet with it but twice throughout the
whole of the Gospels. Once it is introduced as
a prophetic designation of that Church which
should afterwards be formed, and a second time
as a common designation of any religious body.
* Acts ii. 36. t Actsii. 41.
266 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 11.
It is never applied as an historical denomination
to the visible assemblies of the followers of Jesus
upon earth, until after this extensive conversion
on the day of Pentecost. When the writer of
the Acts of the Apostles speaks of the three thou-
sand who were convinced by the first preaching
of Peter on that day, he speaks of them only
as being added to the Apostles. But when he
proceeds, in the conclusion of the very same
Chapter, to notice the succeeding triumphs of
the Gospel, he speaks of these additional mem-
bers as being united to the body of a Church
already existing. " And the Lord added," says
he, " unto the Church daily such as should
be saved ;" * thus intimating, by this change in
the manner of his expression, the moment at
which he conceived the foundations of the Chris-
tian Church to have been laid, and fixing that
moment to the first preaching of the Messiah
by Peter.
Take the prediction, then, in what sense you
will contemplate it under every different and
possible view, and still it will be found that it was
strictly fulfilled, and that not only was the Church
originally built upon the Apostle Peter himself,
but upon the very words of his confession, and
upon the belief of that holy doctrine which they
* Acts ii. 47.
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTUIIES, 1820. 267
contained, namely, that Jesus was the Christ, the
Son of the living God.
I have entered into this dry, and perhaps
tedious, enumeration of the various meanings of
the words, in order to direct your attention to the
singular contrast which their obscurity presents
to our view, when compared with the clearness
of the denunciations of calamity upon Jerusalem.
Then every woe was uttered, as if it had been
already endured, with all the soberness of reality,
and in all the simple solemnity of sadness. Sorrow
seems to have mellowed down the prophet into
the historian, and " Thy house is left unto thee
desolate, and thy children shall fall by the edge
of the sword," are expressions whose meaning it
were idle to doubt, and impossible to misunder-
stand. We have only to change the tense from
the future into the past, in order to turn the pre-
figurations of. prophecy into the language of
narrative. But all is altered when, instead of
mourning over the suffering of his enemies, the
speaker comes to describe the first planting of his
own religion. The natural obscurity of the pro-
phetic style immediately returns, and it is only
by searching out their fulfilment in succeeding
events, that we are enabled to remove the ambi-
guity of the metaphors. Wherefore this differ-
ence, and why are all the gloomy horrors of the
268 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 11,
first prediction laid bare before the aching eye,
whilst the glories of the other are so deeply veiled?
Why, but for reasons of infinite wisdom, and
because God, in his goodness, would so write his
words, as well as perform his works, that they
might be justified to man. The object of our
Saviour in predicting so openly the destruction of
Jerusalem was, to warn his disciples to flee from
the danger of her accursed walls, and the fulfil-
ment of the denunciation was to be effected by
Roman power, and recorded by a Jewish pen.
The more definite and simple, therefore, were the
expressions employed, the more remarkable would
appear the subsequent accomplishment, and the
more deeply and distinctly would the exhortation
operate upon the hearers at the time. But the
prognostic of the Church's triumph seems rather
to have been called forth by the feelings of mo-
mentary gratification at the confession of Peter's
faith, and was to be both produced and related by
those very Christians to whom it was addressed.
The prediction, therefore, was expressed in terms
of such comparative ambiguity, as to remove
every suspicion of its having suggested its own
accomplishment, and in order to prove to the
satisfaction of any reasonable mind, that there
was no connivance between the reporter of the
prediction and the narrator of its fulfilment. We
are left to gather the fact of that accomplishment
Lett. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 269
from a painful examination of the history of the
Church. Had such collusion existed, the mean-
ing and completion would have been distinctly
pointed out by the Evangelists themselves, and
not intimated with such faintness and obscurity,
as to elude the discovery of an ordinary observer.
The manner of uttering these two predictions,
then, is completely different; but in both it is so
adapted to the circumstances of the case, that the
air of probability would be injured even by the
most trivial alteration. An obscure prediction of
the ruin of Jerusalem would have defeated the
purpose of a warning, and a distinct explication
of the sense in which Peter was to become the
rock of foundation for the Church, would have
given an opportunity to the Infidel to assert, that
he had framed his conduct with a direct view to
its fulfilment.
Thus much have I said for the confirmation of
faith in them that believe ; and now let me pro-
ceed in the more laborious and less hopeful task,
of endeavouring to pour conviction into the hearts
of them that believe not.
For this purpose we have a powerful and
persuasive argument in the concluding part of the
prediction under review. Christ says not only,
" I will build my Church," but adds, I will so
870 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1S&0. [Led. II.
build it, that " the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." Here we have both the form and
matter of a prediction of deep importance. Here
there is no hesitation, no conjecture, no reasoning
upon the nature of the case, no probability as to
what might hereafter come to pass, nothing ambi-
guous, nothing of doubtful interpretation. There
is no " if" to abate the certainty, no " until" to
limit the period of the Church's existence. All
is positive assurance and unconditional assertion.
The prophet, as Paul says of Esaias, " is very
bold," and pronounces an absolute decree of per-
petuity upon his religion. Be the gates of hell
what they may call them the powers of spiritual
wickedness in high places, or the powers of de-
struction and the grave from the deep against
the Church they shall never prevail. The hea-
vens shall be shrivelled into a scroll, the elements
melt with fervent heat, the world have its end,
time fade into eternity, and death, that hath the
keys of the gates of hell, and that hath put all
things under his feet, shall himself be swallowed
up in victory, and deliver up his dominion in the
conscious inability of treading down the Re-
deemer's building. Tongues shall cease, and
knowledge vanish away, but the Church, like
charity, shall never fail, and that which has been
begun on earth, shall be perfected and perpe-
tuated in Heaven.
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 271
Such is the full and almost appalling import of
the words of this everlasting promise. And has
this promise been belied ? The faith I hold, the
Christian name I bear, the Christian ministry
I exercise, this holy temple in which I stand, and
ye that sit around me, and hear and bear with
me so patiently in the feebleness of my reasonings
against the Infidel, nay even that very Infidel
himself bears witness with us all, that not one
tittle of what was said hath fallen to the ground.
For when the Lord declared that the gates of
hell should not prevail against his Church, surely
he did therein imply, that they should strive and
labour to prevail. And so it hath been in every
age. So it was when imperial Rome did lay bare
the arm of her vengeance, and would have
quenched the rising light of the Church in the
blood of its saints. So it was when that imperial
Rome herself did bow before the Cross, and gave
liberty to the children of the Church to turn the
sword against each other's bosom, and wound
the peace and endanger the life of their common
Mother. So it was, when in the middle ages of
barbarism, an universal ignorance did overspread
* the face of the Roman world, and had well-nigh
sunk the brightness of the Gospel-day in its own
gloominess and thick mental darkness. It was
so, once more, when at the period of the Refor-
mation, philosophy broke the galling bonds of that
72 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. II.
ignorance, and tried its newly-recovered powers
in assailing the religion whose corruptions had
banished it. It is so still, and every renewed
attempt of Infidelity to quench, or of Heresy to
obscure, the light and truth of the Gospel, is anew
effort of the gates of hell to prevail against the
Church, and a new fulfilment of the prediction of
the Lord. For against the Church the gates of
hell have never prevailed. Through all its dan-
gers it hath struggled, and through all it hath
stood. There was once a period, indeed, about
some eight and twenty years ago, when the clouds
of Infidelity had gathered so deep and dark, that
the Gospel-day did seem at length to have come
to an end, and the enemy might have triumphed,
and the friend of Christianity might have trem-
bled as he contemplated the scene. The be-
siegers came up against the city of the Lord to
take it. The host of unbelievers came in all
their might, with the trumpet of defiance, and
with all the fiery darts of the wicked, and clothed
with the whole armour of hell. They stood,
having their loins girt about with falsehood, and
having on the breast-plate of unrighteousness, and
their feet shod with the preparation of the wisdom
of this world; above all taking the shield of
doubt, and the helmet of pride, and the sword of
blasphemy, which is the word of ridicule upon
sacred things, praying never, but watching always
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
with all perseverance to spread the dominion of
the mystery of iniquity. Thus came these phi-
losophic infidels against the Gospel, and they
entered in and spoiled her for a time ; and if ever
there was a moment in which the wisdom of the
world had an opportunity of trying its strength
against the foolishness of preaching, it was then.
But the word of God was with the Church, and
not against it, as it had been against Jerusalem,
and, therefore, the gates of hell were unable to
prevail. France, indeed, had then ceased to be
one of the kingdoms either of the world or of
Christ. The sceptre and the cross were both
driven out of the land, but yet the spoilers were
unable either to retain or destroy. The distress
which was in those days was most severe in that
land of infidelity itself, and the wrath was most
awful upon her own people ; and when her own
children had fallen by the sword, sufficiently to
mark the just judgment of Heaven, the exiled
religion returned to resume its seat, and flourish,
as before, with what vigour and purity it might.
But it was not the human arm, or the conquering
host, which forced back the Gospel upon the
land of France. It was the finger of God, making
use of the very enemies of the Church, as the
instruments of accomplishing his own decree ;
for Christianity was re-established long before the
T
274 HULSJUN LECTUBES, 1820. [Ltd. 11.
family with which it had been driven forth was
brought again to its home. It was restored even
by those who had been the bitterest of its adver-
saries, and sheltered under the protection of that
dominion of usurpation which they had set up.
Here I pause, and I ask with confidence
whether the words of Jesus have not been indeed
fulfilled ? whether the gates of hell have not ever
laboured, and ever laboured in vain, to prevail
against the Church? The persecutions of Pa-
gan Rome, and the heresies and divisions of
Christian Rome ; light and darkness, reasoning
and reviling, knowledge and ignorance, folly and
philosophy, have all united together in a fruit-
less conspiracy to overturn the foundations of
the everlasting Gospel. Such is the fact, be
the cause what it may, and such is the fact un-
equivocally and unhesitatingly declared to us in
those words of our Saviour which we are con-
sidering.
But it is not only to the fact of the continuance
of the Church that our Lord is represented in the
Gospels as having directed the language of his
predictions. He speaks also of its gradual, yet
rapid and extensive, progress, and the silent and
moral means and manner of its propagation
#. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 275
"The kingdom of Heaven," said he,* "is like
unto a grain of mustard-seed which a man took
and sowed in his field, which, indeed, is the least
of all seeds ; but when it is grown, it is the greatest
among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the
birds of the air come and lodge in the branches
thereof,"
Now the field is the world the grain of mus-
tard seed is the Gospel, and the man that sowed
it, is that good shepherd, " the Son of Man ;'*
for the world is the field of his spiritual efforts
and triumphs, and we are the sheep of his pasture,
and he is the guide and guardian of us all. And
when the seed of the Gospel was first sown, it
was indeed the least of all seeds the least of all
the religions which subsisted upon the face of the
earth. At the period of its planting, on the
day of Pentecost, all the number of the names it
could count were, says the Evangelist,! " about
one hundred and twenty." But now, by the
exertion of its own vigorous principle of vitality,
it has grown great, and is become a tree, and
overshadows the lands ; and all the creatures of
those lands who did fly from religion to religion,
and from philosopher to philosopher, and, like
the dove which was sent forth from the ark of
Noah, could find no place of certainty for their
* Matt. xiii. 31. | Acts i. 15.
T 2
76 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect. I
souls to rest in, save the Church which the
Almighty had built, have now come and lodged
their weakness in the branches thereof, and are
sheltered by its shade from all the storms of un-
godliness. And truly when the latter days do
come, Christianity shall, in its full and final
triumph, become "the greatest among " religions,
the only and the universal faith.
Another parable spake he unto them, by which
he signified the gradual manner and moral means,
as strongly as in the former one he had repre-
sented the rapidity of the Gospel's progress.
"The kingdom of heaven," said he,* "is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three
measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
The three measures of meal are the world again ;
for into three parts is the world several times
divided in the prophetic language of the Reve-
lation of St. John.f The leaven also is the doc-
trine of the Gospel, and she that hid it, is he
that did proclaim that doctrine ; and the hiding
of this leaven implies its inconspicuous origin and
early obscurity, whilst the leavening of the whole
mass pronounces upon its gradual and ultimate
success in that glorious hour when the kingdoms
of the whole world shall become the kingdoms of
the Lord and of his Christ, and righteousness shall
* Matt, xiii, 33. ; \ Rev. chap. viii. & ix.
Lect. 11.] HULSEAH LECTURES,. 1820. 277
cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and
they shall neither kill nor destroy in all God's
holy mountain. And could words more accu-
rately detail the nature and the mode of the
Gospel's operation and influence ? It came not
forth, like Mahometism, with the strength of
armies, and the sword of victory, and the noise
of the trumpet, and the pomps, and vanities, and
splendors of royalty. It was so hidden at first,
that in its earliest infancy we discover but few
traces of its progress in the general history of the
world. Its name is unknown, its nature mis-
represented ; but it soon begins gradually to de-
velope its energies upon individuals and things.
It creeps into houses and palaces ; into cities and
provinces. Kingdom after kingdom is leavened
by its healing juices, until at last it seats itself
upon the throne of Constantine. Barbarians
invade the empire and are vanquished and
leavened by the religion of the subject land. A
new world is discovered beyond the limits of the
ocean, and thither too Christianity makes its way
with the spirit of adventure, and leavens the
people of an unknown shore. And there shall
be a day, for from the experience of the past we
have solid hope of the future, when not a clime
or a nation shall be untouched, uninfluenced, or
unleavened, by its power.
Nor has the Gospel been less like to leaven in
278 HULSEAN LECTUUES, 1820. [Led. li-
the means, than in the gradual nature of its pro-
gress. It has not risen upon the ruins of political
institutions and ancient manners, and national
character, subverting every thing established to
make way for some peculiar form of civil society
or government under which alone it can exist.
But it has mingled itself with what it found, and
insinuating its renovating views of God and man
into the hearts of those with whom it has come in
contact, has given a new colour to their laws,
and softened their nature, and improved their
genius. The Koran has every where banished
liberty and literature from the heads and hearts
of its victims, and changed the person of the
governor, and the nature of the government;
but the Gospel has united itself with both, and en-
couraged, improved, and extended their blessings.
It has been the established religion of consuls and
emperors, as well as kings, in other countries,
and of a Cromwell as well as a Charles in our
own. Change a monarchy into a republic, as in
America ; change a republic into a monarchy, as
in the states of Italy ; divide a whole land amongst
its spoilers, as in Poland ; and still Christianity
remains the authorised religion of the state, and
the only religion of the people. It can leaven
any form of government, and subsist under all.
Thus speak the Lord and the Scriptures ; and
thus speaks also, as far as it has had an oppor-
Led. 11.] HULSJSAN LECTURES, 1820. 279
tunity of bearing testimony to the fact, the voice
of experience in the history of mankind. Tacitus
first tells us of the meanness and minuteness of
the origin of the Gospel seed, and of the hope-
lessness of its increase when sown, and of its
gradual growth until it had pushed its roots and
spread its branches over the Roman earth. Pliny
next comes forward to establish the propriety of
the second similitude, and compares the progress
of Christianity to a contagion which had pene-
trated, like leaven, not through cities only, but
through villages also, and through the open coun-
try, places most remote and least liable to the
fermentation of novelty.
Let us not, however, suppose that these are
the mere general prognostics of success, which are
uttered alike by the true and the false prophets of
the world, or that our Saviour was but imperfectly
acquainted with the events which should attend
the propagation of his religion, or that he thought
that all its history might be written in the same
strain of triumph and joy. There is not one cir-
cumstance, whether of glory or of shame, which
should follow the march of the Gospel, that does
not appear to have met his prophetic eye. He
knew what was in man. He pronounced,* " Woe
unto the world because of offences ; for it must
* Matt, xviii. 7.
280 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 11
needs be that offences come ;" and the schisms
and heresies and corruptions of the Church have,
in every period, abounded unto the world's woe.
He said unto his disciples :* "In the world ye
shall have tribulation," and in the world they were
buffeted and persecuted and reviled. And, lastly,
he put forth unto them the parable of the tares, t
and vouchsafed also to explain it for their use.J
Tares and wheat, he declared, would both grow
together in the Gospel field the wheat as the
good children of the kingdom of Heaven, and the
tares as the evil children of the wicked one ; and
both are to grow together till the great spiritual
harvest of mercy and wrath. And such has ever
been the fate of Christianity in its growth. It
has ever had to meet with obstacles, to struggle
with enemies, and to be almost choked by -the
weeds of error and dissension which spring up
and are permitted to flourish even within its own
holy precincts. There have been false brethren
in the fold of Christ ; and they are tares, and con-
firm the word of Jesus. There have been infidels
amongst men ; and they are tares also, and do the
same. And if there be an infidel here, he too is
a tare, and bears witness, by his predicted in-
fidelity, to the authority and inspiration of that
very Lord whom his infidelity would deny. God's
long-suffering is no proof of favour ; God's per-
* John xvi, 33. t Matt, xiii. 24, $ Matt. xiii. 36.
Lect. 11.] HULSEAN LECTUERS, 1820. 281
mission that evil opinions should flourish is no
evidence of their truth ; for the Lord hath foretold
of these things. The growth of the Gospel has
indeed been rapid and gradual, but never has it
enjoyed a progress of uninterrupted felicity. It
has always been clogged with difficulties and
surrounded with danger, convincing us at once
of the foreknowledge of its Author, and its own
vital vigour.
Thus have we found described in these pro-
phetic parables of our Lord a complete and lively
picture of the state and progress of the Church,
as it has been, as it is, and as it will be until
time shall be no more. And now let us turn to
estimate the nature, and measure the value, of the
testimony of these fulfilments.
Now, the first general inference which we
draw from the fulfilment of these prophecies is
this that they must necessarily have been
uttered by Jesus in the fulness of the spirit of
foreknowledge. And if so, the question as to
the probability of miracles in general, and of the
certainty of those of Jesus in particular, is at an
end. The infidel himself allows that " a prophecy
is a real miracle/ 5 subject to the same rules and
leading to the same inferences as any other won-
derful work. Here then we say is prophecy, and
282 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 11.
here, therefore, we conclude is a real miracle.
The infidel may deny the existence of the spirit
of foreknowledge in Jesus if he will. He may
talk of conjecture, or of reasoning, or of assertions
hazarded by imposture or enthusiasm, and by
accident fulfilled. We can only lament the blind-
ness of his heart, or the perverseness of his
understanding, and continue to maintain, with
a firmness and a resolution which the reasonable-
ness of the opinion justifies, that the predictions
of our Lord were too bold for conjecture, too
positive for reasoning, and too varied and minute
for mere accident to accomplish.
A second inference seems equally sure, and it
is this that it is impossible to view those pro-
phecies of our Saviour which we have detailed,
in connection with their accomplishment, and not
allow that the foreknowledge in which they were
uttered was of divine origin. The predictions
were uttered ages ago. That is one fact un-
deniable and undenied. The predictions have
been fulfilled in every age, and are fulfilling in our
own. That is another fact of like clearness and
certainty. Take, then, these two facts together,
and tell me what other conclusion you can fairly
draw than this, that the spirit in which the words
were spoken was of God, and that their fulfilment
was also of him,
Led. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 283
For consider, that these prophecies involve in
their fulfilment the truth and divinity of the whole
of the religion of which they form a part. The
woes which Jesus pronounced upon Jerusalem he
frequently declared to be called down upon her
because she knew not the hour of her visitation,
and would obey none of his laws, and gave heed
to none of his claims. " Did ye never read in
the Scriptures/' said he, " the stone which the
builders refused is become the head of the corner ;
this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our
eyes. Therefore, I say unto you, The kingdom of
God shall be taken from you and given to a nation
bringing forth the fruits thereof."* Hear also
another parable which he spake. The Lord
of a certain vineyard, whose husbandmen were
fruitless and disobedient, said, " What shall I do ?
I will send my beloved son. And he sent unto
them his son ; but the husbandmen cast him out
of the vineyard and killed him. What, therefore,
shall the Lord of the vineyard do unto them. He
shall come and destroy those husbandmen, and
give their vineyard to others. "t Now the chief
priests and scribes perceived that he had spoken
this parable against them. " And when they
heard it they said, God forbid." J But God did
not forbid. In all its minuteness, in all its extent,
* Matt, xxi. 42. t Luke xx, 13. % Lukexx. 16.
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 11.
in all its singularity, their ruin was accomplished,
and they themselves were slain, and their city
made a perpetual wonder in the hands of
strangers. Jesus also said, " Upon this rock I
will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it." He speaks not of a
church in general, but of his own church in par-
ticular, and of himself as its builder, and of
building it upon the rock of Peter or of his con-
fession. And the whole of this we have seen
literally fulfilled. Now, it is impossible for any
man to look upon the completion of these pre-
dictions, and not think that the completion was
permitted by God. It is equally impossible for
any honest and unprejudiced man to suppose
their completion, after having been thus solemnly
appealed to by Jesus, to have been permitted by
God, had not the religion in whose favour they
were appealed to, been true. For by only not
permitting their full and fair accomplishment,
God would have given us the immediate means
of detecting the existence of imposture and deceit.
But God has permitted the fulfilment of those
judgments which Jesus denounced upon the
adversaries of his claims ; and of those promises
which he made of establishing his pretensions ;
and therein we are plainly taught that his claims
ought to have been admitted, and that his pre-
tensions were just.
Lect. 11.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 285
Here, then, at length, we are enabled to estimate
the nature, and measure the value of that testimony
which his own accomplished predictions are able
to bear to the truth of Jesus. They were uttered
in the wisdom of the spirit of divine foreknow-
ledge. They were appealed to as proofs .of his
divine mission, and by their accomplishment,
therefore, they are created not only into real
miracles, but divine. They are miracles which
are performing in the present generation, and
before our own eyes, and so demonstrate to the
senses and to the experience of the men of the
present and every other generation, not only the
probability, but the absolute certainty, that Chris-
tianity is supported by the evidence of real and
divine miracles. They may be reasoned upon
also like any other miracles ; and, as the Jews and
the primitive Christians had an opportunity of
beholding the wonderful performance of the
works of Jesus, and by comparing them with his
life and doctrine, were enabled to demonstrate the
divine authority of his commission ; so also, and
with equal certainty, may we do the same, by only
applying the same course of argument to the won-
derful fulfilment of his prophecies. What that
course of argument is, I have already pointed out
in a previous Discourse;* and it is necessary,
* Discourse V.
286 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. II.
therefore, further only to observe, first, how com-
pletely the words of the Apostle are verified, when
he says, that " the spirit of prophecy is the
testimony of Jesus " in every age ; and, secondly,
to mark the kindness of God in having given us
such a sensible and everlasting illustration of the
truth of our religion, and the reasonableness of
our faith, and the solidity of our hopes of salva-
tion : for which great and unspeakable and un-
merited mercy to his fallen and unworthy crea-
tures, his holy name be praised, both now, hence
forth, and for ever !
DISCOURSE XII.
ACTS, chap. xix. ver. 20.
et Mightily grew the ivord of God and prevailed."
IN all that I have hitherto ventured to lay before
you in defence of the truth of that religion by
whose promises we are animated to the pursuits
of holiness, and by whose awful terrors we are
guarded against the temptations of a sinful, but
seductive world; in all the Discourses which I
have hitherto delivered, it has been my leading
object to assign to each portion of the evidence
its proper weight and place ; and to shew that
whilst all the various arguments have been appro-
priated, like the members of the human body, to
the discharge of some special and important office,
they have been so combined together at the same
time, as to give the greatest possible degree
of strength, and beauty, and order, to the whole.
To compare the probable with the actual result ;
88 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 12.
to compare the mighty growth of Christianity with
the mighty means which were put in force for
securing the reception of its doctrines ; to com-
pare the rapidity of its progress and the perma-
nence of its conquests with the sublimity of its
precepts and the grandeur of its miracles, would
now seem to present itself as a natural conclusion
of these arduous labours, and to afford a favour-
able opportunity for considering, not only whether
the success of the Gospel has been commensurate
with the strength of its evidences, but also, whe-
ther it be possible to account for that success
upon any other supposition than that of the
truth of the religion itself, and the divine author-
ity of its teachers. That the positive proofs of
Christianity are in their nature so unequivocal
and strong as to justify the deepest prejudices
of the Gentile and the Jew in bowing down be-
fore their influence, is what, from our previous
investigation, we have already seen. If then the
history of the triumphs of Christianity be found to
correspond with those expectations which the evi-
dences, for its divine origin had raised if we
find the philosopher throwing aside the foolish-
ness of man's reasoning to learn the wisdom of
God at the lips of the lowly, and the worldly
prospects of the Pharisee corrected and sub-
dued by the spiritual consolations of the Gospel ;
if we behold these changes taking place
Lect. 12.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 289
in the opinions and feelings, not of a few iso-
lated individuals, but of multitudes in the most
bigoted and the most enlightened nations in the
world; and if, after having attentively contem-
plated the subject, we find it impossible to attri-
bute such numberless and wonderful conversions
to any other cause than the miraculous powers
and heavenly commission of the teachers of the
religion, then may we safely infer that those mi-
raculous powers, and that heavenly commission
were indeed the sources of the victory of the
Gospel ; and by adding the subsequent fact of
its success to the former proofs of its divinity, may
draw, from the combination of the two arguments,
a demonstration which none of our adversaries
shall be able to resist.
But it is not merely when viewed in combina-
tion with the positive evidences of its truth, that
the rapidity of the progress of Christianity as-
sumes so important a character. It has a value
also when separately estimated which it would be
most unwise to overlook. I am far from consider-
ing it as, in general, either a safe, or a sound
method of reasoning, to rest the whole burthen
of our proof upon any one particular fact : yet
there are times in which the arguments from such
particular facts may be urged with much greater
effect than a more comprehensive and complicated
u
290 HITLSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. [Led.
detail of evidence. The human mind is weak
often in the wisest ; wavering often in the firm-
est of God's rational creatures. There are mo-
ments of despondency and dejection, in which
the understanding is averse to the vigorous pur-
suit of any lengthened chain of reasoning, and
almost incapable of appreciating its force and
application. In moments like these, , the heart
turns away from complex and scientific demon-
stration, and seeks to satisfy its doubts by some
single and simple argument. It knows its own
wants, its own weakness, its own wilfulness, and
desires, like the children of Israel in their Egypt-
ian distress, to have some pillar of never-failing
strength to look to in all its dangers a pillar of fire
by night to console and enlighten it in the darkness
of its faithless hours, and a pillar of smoke by day
to protect it by its friendly shade against the pes-
tilential rays of perverted reason. Now, there is
no single argument for the divine origin and au-
thority of the Gospel more simple or solid, arid
therefore no guardian more powerful against the
fickleness and feebleness of the human mind, than
that which is furnished by the rapid propagation
of Christianity. That " mightily grew the word
of God, and that mightily it prevailed," are facts
to winch, above all others, we may always, when
assailed by the temptations of sophistry, appeal,
and say, this is the rock of my confidence, and
lect. 18,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 291
upon this unmoveable foundation do I build the
wisdom of the trust which I repose in my Re-
deemer. Proceed we then to examine into these
facts, and to endeavour to draw from the propa-
gation of the Gospel both a confirmation of the
reasonings which we have already advanced in
its favour, and a refuge for the weakness of our
understanding to flee to, in those seasons of de-
jection and doubt, which God hath sometimes
permitted to fall upon men of the most pious dis-
positions, and the most reasonable minds.
The progress and perpetuity of Christianity,
as an argument for the truth of its claims to a
divine authority, may be contemplated in two
different points of view; either as a predicted, or
merely as an historical fact ; and in both it will
appear as an evidence of the highest kind. As
a predicted fact, I have already detailed its claims
to your notice, and pointed out the glorious and
irresistible fulfilment which it affords of the won-
drous prophecies of Jesus, by growing up to
majesty, like the least of all seeds, from the most
hopeless of all beginnings, and by impregnating,
like leaven, the whole mass of the moral and intel-
lectual world. It only remains for me at present
to view the matter in an historical point of view,
and I hold, that, regarding the progress of Chris-
tianity merely as one amongst the many changes
u2
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. IS.
of the world, it is impossible to refer it to any
cause which is inferior to the interposition of
the Almighty's arm. I view it in connexion with
the circumstances of its origin, and the instru-
ments employed in its propagation ; and I say,
that if we consider the place from which it
sprung, the persons by whom it was preached,
the dangers to which they were exposed, the
difficulties they had to surmount, and the nations,
and minds, and prejudices, over which they ulti-
mately triumphed, we cannot fail to acknowledge
the divinity of its author; and to allow that, hav-
ing been first promulgated as the word of God,
it owed its future prosperity and progress to his
protection and favour.
Of all the various nations which had been
successively subjected to the iron sway of Rome,
the inhabitants of Judea were held as the most
degraded and despised. The contempt under
which they labour amongst the Christian king-
doms of modern Europe, is severe to those who
suffer, and most disgraceful to those who indulge
the tyranny of a sweeping censure which would
condemn a whole people as unworthy to be ad-
mitted into a participation of the offices and cha-
rities of life. But in all the present sorrows of
the Jew, he has the unspeakable consolation of
knowing, that his religion is regarded with rever-
LecL IS,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 293
ence by the most unfeeling of his oppressors,
and that as one of the lineal descendants of the
Father of the faithful, there are none to disallow
the dignity of his birth. It was not thus under
the dominion of his Pagan lords. His religion
and his person were alike hated and despised;
and whilst his system of worship and belief was
tolerated only because it was a national creed, he
was placed, as an individual, amongst the lowest
of those ranks which divided the citizen from the
slave of the republic. Of all countries, therefore,
which could have been selected for the origin of
a successful and triumphant religion, Judea was
the most inauspicious and improbable. Had a
philosopher of Athens or an augur of Rome come
forth with a code of morality as pure and fault-
less as the Gospel, and a series of doctrines as
wise and sublime, the character and even the
residence of the teachers would have secured
a favourable audience for their words. Had
another Socrates proclaimed his intercourse with
a guardian angel as his guide, and founded the
immortality of the soul upon the instructions of
his heavenly monitor : had another Numa stood
forth with a law of undeviating holiness, and
asserted his communication with the Deity at
some sacred fountain, men might have been ex-
pected to listen with eager reverence to the tale.
The classic ground of Greece would seem to
294 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect.l%.
make it the natural habitation of superior spirits ;
and the imperial majesty of Rome to justify its
selection for the peculiar favours of Heaven ; and
we find, in fact, that the Romans with their usual
vanity were ever ready to admit the special inter-
position of Providence in the fate of their mighty
men, and to believe the prodigies which foretold
the fate of Caesar or his murderer. But Jesus
had none of these holds upon the feelings of
the world. The very accidents of his birth con-
demned the presumption of his prophetic claims ;
and it is impossible to suppose, that heathens
should be persuaded to renounce the profession
of their fathers, and Romans to give up the reli-
gion of the state, in obedience to the teaching of
a Jew, unless overpowered by the irresistible
demonstrations of his divine authority. Even the
wisest of the Jews would have been rejected by
a Heathen and a Roman ; and still less, therefore,
could a peasant of Israel hope, if uninspired
and unassisted by God, to become the founder of
a religion, which should prevail over every other
system, and continue for ages to guide the prac-
tice and form the creed of every successive
generation.
If our Saviour and his Apostles had so many
prejudices to contend with in their spiritual labours
amidst the idolaters of the Gentile world, they
Ltct. 12,] HOLS BAN LECTURES, 1820. 295
had yet more serious difficulties to struggle with
in their native land. If as Jews they were hate-
ful to the haughty Roman, they were, as Galileans,
yet more contemptible to Jews. " Can any good
thing come out of Nazareth ?" * was the question
of one of the most sincere and least bigoted of
the children of Israel, and it represents in brief
but forcible terms the general sentiments of his
brethren. From this neglected and suspected
country, however, did the first teachers of Chris-
tianity derive their education and birth. They
were no rulers in Israel adorned with the author-
ity of office. They were not Scribes who were
armed with the dignity of traditional knowledge.
They were not Pharisees, who could depend upon
the blind devotion of the multitudes to their sect.
They were poor, friendless, illiterate, and uncon-
nected. Their very speech betrayed to ridicule
the things which they uttered, and as Galileans
and Nazarenes, they were subject to censure
and suspicion with all. Truth could have no
hope of coming mended from tongues like theirs,
and falsehood would be exposed to more certain
and immediate detection. The ear that despises
or doubts the competency of the speaker is seldom
attentive to the wisdom he may declare, but
always most studious to unveil his errors. The
reception, therefore, which the Founder and
* John i* 46.
296 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Ltct. 12.
Apostles of Christianity experienced from the in-
habitants of their native land, and the followers
of the religion of their fathers, can be resolved
into nothing but those miraculous evidences
which they gave of a commission from God. The
authority which their character and their country
wanted, could be supplied only by the truth of
what they spake, and the wonders they performed.
But it was not merely the disadvantages of
country and of character against which Jesus and
his Apostles had to labour. They had to struggle
with a far more powerful obstacle in the very
nature and subject of their doctrine. What was
the substance of their preaching? Was it not
this, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of
God, a carpenter of Galilee the 1 king of the Jews ?
And was not this in opposition to every sentiment
which prevailed in Israel ? and were not all the
thoughts of the people of God taught from their
very youth to flow in a different channel, and to
view the prophecies of the Messiah's glory as the
clear and incontrovertible predictions of the bless-
ing, and honour, and power, and dominion of this
world ? Had the preaching of Jesus encouraged
those engrafted errors, he might have hoped, even
in the humility of a peasant, and the degradation
of a Galilean, to gather to himself the wishes
and affections of his countrymen. But, when he
Lect. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 297
rebuked the desire of civil emancipation, and
struck at the very root of the popular passions
and prejudices in favour of temporal greatness ;
when he laid claim to the dignity of David's
throne, and yet refused the splendors of his
earthly crown, and was content to reign only in
the hearts of his followers, we are lost in amaze-
ment at the singularity of his conduct, and wonder,
not that many should have doubted, but that any
should have believed. Upon the common prin-
ciples by which the conduct of human beings is
regulated, it is indeed impossible to account for
his success without the aid and approbation of
his heavenly Father. As a mere human teacher
he could never have gained a footing amongst the
descendants of Abraham. ' The early impressions
of infancy, and the prevailing opinions of our
kindred and instructors, it is never an easy task
to shake off or to forget, however false or fatal
the error we have embraced, if it has been drawn
in with the first rudiments of knowledge, and
implanted in our minds by the teaching of those
we love. But more especially if we have learnt to
regard the error as a religious truth, it obtains
a force and sanctity which it would require some^
thing more than human authority to destroy.
Now this was the exact case of the Jews in their
mistaken notions of the Messiah's character and
kingdom. What, then, or who could pretend, by
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 12.
his own power alone, to correct and obliterate so
inveterate a prejudice ? That many of the pre-
dictions of the holy men of old were strictly and
literally fulfilled in the actions of Jesus, all who
reflected must have seen ; but there were many
predictions also, whose interpretation was attended
with exceeding difficulties, and many which had
long, though erroneously, been interpreted in
a manner altogether inconsistent with his claims.
What, then, or who could have power to prove
that this inconsistency did not exist 1 We have
already observed, that before the explanation of
any difficult or disputed prophecy can become
authoritative, and binding, and decisive, the ex-
pounder must be admitted to have been endued
with the Spirit of God : and in this case the rule
was more especially necessary. The whole body
of the established priesthood, the doctors of the
law, and the learned Pharisees, gave forth one
sense of the ancient prophecies, sanctioned by
antiquity, and believed in by all. A few humble
and uneducated inhabitants of Galilee delivered
another and a different sense, and triumphed in
the conversion of myriads to their creed. As
natural men their authority was nothing, when
compared with the weight which lay in the oppo-
site scale. The only cause, therefore, to which
we can attribute their success, is to a conviction
in those who believed their saying, that they
Led. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 299
acted under a revelation from the Most High;
and it would be mere idleness to maintain, that
such a conviction could be engendered under
such circumstances by any thing less than the
exercise of miraculous powers.
If the doctrines of our Saviour and his dis-
ciples were thus obnoxious to the religious pre-
judices of the Jew, they had equal difficulties to
endure in the philosophic notions of their Gentile
converts. However obvious and reasonable the
unity of God may appear to our enlightened views
when examined merely as a principle of natural
religion, it was far otherwise in those ages of
intellectual cultivation, and spiritual blindness, in
which the Gospel was proclaimed. A mere asser-
tion of the doctrine that the " Lord our God is
one God, and that besides him there is none else,"
when unaccompanied by any physical or meta-
physical reasoning, could neither satisfy the mul-
titudes, whose ideas of the Deity were sensible
and gross, nor the philosophers, who demanded
a demonstration for every truth, and whose in-
genuity was ready to detect the weakness of
every argument. But the Scriptures furnish us
with no formal proof whatever of these truths.
They are contented with the bare but repeated
assertions of the divine unity, mingled up with
the eternal generation of the Son, and the equally
300 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. IS.
mysterious procession of the Spirit. In the same
manner Christianity pronounces, and upon the
authority of its own declaration alone, not only
the fact, but the channel, of God's mercy to the
sinner, and teaches him not only to look for the
pardon of his crimes, but to expect it from his
faith in the sacred blood of his Redeemer. These
are doctrines which the Gospel maintains with the
same fulness and pertinacity as the singleness of
God's nature,and the' efficiency of man's repentance ;
and yet they are doctrines which human reason
cannot discover or demonstrate, and which human
authority, therefore, could not have established.
The utmost which mortal understanding can
accomplish is, to shew, that the doctrines of the
Trinity and the Atonement being revealed to us
by a prophet of God, are not unworthy of God
to reveal to his prophet.
Grant, however, that the leading principles of
the Gospel had no opposition to dread from the
reasoning powers of man, when fairly exercised,
and that in their own uncorrupted nature they
are full of all grace and truth ; yet we should
remember, that the nature and end of Christianity
were at first so misrepresented and misunderstood,
that it had but little prospect of being inquired
into at all, and scarce any of being fairly and
impartially viewed. It was not known or be-
Led. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 301
lieved to be a rational or even a moral system.
It laboured under a general and deep sus-
picion, arising from ignorance, from interest, from
prejudice. It was almost universally branded in
its earlier stages as an entire mass of atheism and
universal unbelief. With such preconceptions
against its holiness, it could entertain but feeble
hope of obtaining any general inquiry into its
merits, or of having that inquiry conducted in
the spirit of unbiassed moderation.
But I feel that I am trespassing upon your pa-
tience by the repetition of arguments which must
so often have occurred to your private reflections,
and which have been so powerfully illustrated in
the writings of others ; and my only excuse must
be, that they are arguments of such weight, it
can never be unprofitable to reflect upon them
again, and that in pursuance of my appointed
task, I was not at liberty to omit them, however
antiquated and familiar.
Well then, instead of pursuing this beaten
path in all the boundless continuity in which it
might be followed, let us briefly recapitulate the
parts we have traced out and sum up the con-
clusion of the whole matter. The Gospel could
not owe its success to the reputation and human
authority of its founders ; for they were calum-
302 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect, IS.
mated and rejected as the outcasts of society,
both at home and abroad. It could not owe its
success to the reasonableness of its doctrines,
when considered merely as the doctrines of men :
for they are incapable of being admitted upon the
strength of mere human authority, or of being
proved by mere human reasoning. It could not
owe its success to the readiness of the world to
embrace it, either with or without a satisfactory
demonstration of its truth; for it came under
such a hateful and suspicious character and name,
that none would have desired or descended to
examine its claims. What then is the result ? It
is this, ithat as the propagation of Christianity is
a work too mighty for man himself, and too holy
for man's enemy, the Creator of man must have
been the origin and author of its greatness.
What is neither of earth, nor hell, must be of
Heaven. If* the foolish things of the world were
able to confound the wise, and the weak things
of the world to confound the things that were
mighty, and base things of the world, and things
which are despised, and things which are not,
to bring to nought things which are, it must
have been because God had chosen them for the
purpose, and endued them with the power. It is
thus that Scripture reasons in its own favour upon
the fact of its own progress, and comprehends, in
* I Cor. i, 27.
Led. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 303
a few brief and energetic words, the substance
of the most lengthened arguments of its human
advocates.
Would to God that I could here terminate the
inquiry ; but there is no period at which scepticism
is not obtruding its insinuations and doubts. In-
fidelity follows us even into the history of the
Gospel, and would persuade us that its triumphs
were less owing to the arm of the Almighty,
than to some causes of a secondary and human
origin.*
It is worthy of remark, that these causes,
whatever be their force, are such as apply only
to the propagation of Christianity amongst the
Gentiles. They cannot in any degree be made
to account for its original and extensive success
amongst the Jews. With all but the Sadducees,
the immortality of the soul was an admitted
principle. The holy zeal of the Christians in the
cause of truth, was equalled, if not surpassed, by
the obstinate pertinacity of the Scribes and Pha-
risees in defence of error ; and the humble virtues
of the followers of Jesus could make but little
impression on those who were taught to despise
the strictest and most regular observance of the
* I allude of course, to the 15th chapter of Gibbon's "Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire."
304 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820, [Lect. 12.
weightier matters of the law, when unaccompanied
by a diligent attention to fasts and ceremonies, to
the washing of vessels and of hands. Again, the
union and discipline of a few Galileans could pro-
duce little effect upon an established priesthood ;
and the chosen people of God, from their long and
frequent experience in divine communications,
were the very last people in the world to be seduced
by the miraculous powers ascribed to Christians,
had not those powers been in reality possessed
and exercised. It becomes necessary, therefore,
for those who would resolve the success of Christ-
ianity into secondary causes, to shew what causes
there were of this kind to promote its original
reception with the Jews: and until they have
accomplished this task, it is of little avail to shew
the means by which they suppose it obtained its
currency with the Gentiles.
But there is, in fact, a circumstance even in
the application of the argument to the Gentiles
which entirely robs it of its sting. I am not
disposed, like many who have written and spoken
upon the subject, to deny that there are various
secondary causes which did materially operate
upon the Roman world in inducing them to lay hold
on eternal life ; but I firmly maintain that these
causes are such, that had the religion not been
true, and had its teachers not been inspired, and
Lect. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 305
had they not confirmed their words with signs
following, they would have forfeited the whole of
their influence, and the entire structure would
have crumbled into dust.
Take these causes as they stand in the pages
of the historian of Rome, and consider first the
zeal of the Christians. It is notorious to all, that
the Christians at first were confounded with the
Jews, and regarded only as one of their more pes-
tilent and pertinacious sects. Now the Gentiles
had long been accustomed to view, and to view
unmoved, the zeal of the Jewish sects. That
the Pharisees compassed sea and land to make
one proselyte, we are told by other authority
besides that of Scripture; but not with much
success. What then could induce multitudes of
the Gentiles to draw the distinction, which they
did virtually draw, between the zeal of the Chris-
tian and the Pharisee, and to permit themselves
to be turned by the one from Satan to serve
the living God, when they had remained un-
converted by the equally strenuous perseverance
of the other? Both were alike exclusive ; both
were alike intolerant of idolatry, and condemned
with unsparing severity every participation in the
rites of the established religion. Whence then
the difference between the effects of the two
zeals? To this we can return but one answer;
x
306 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 18.
that the multitude perceived that the zeal of the
Christian was a zeal according to knowledge, and
that he was thus zealously affected only in a thing
which was good and true. And what could con-
vince the Gentile of this, if not the sufferings or
the miracles of the Christian (for he attempted
not to establish his faith by philosophic reasoning),
either of which, if admitted, will prove the cer-
tainty and divinity of his religion.
A similar inference may be drawn from the
second of those causes to which the progress of
the Gospel has been traced, I mean the doctrine
of a future life. That the doubt and darkness
which hung over the world that lies beyond the
grave, when examined only by the unassisted eye
of reason, should make the penitent ready to
embrace any system of philosophy or of faith
which could put an end to the weariness and un-
certainty of his conjectures; and that thousands
were actually enlisted under the banner of the
cross, principally because it held forth an as-
surance of eternal happiness in Heaven, are facts
of which I am fully persuaded. But we have still
to shew the reason why these men believed the
assurance which Christianity held forth. Consider
the Apostles and Evangelists as without inspiration
and without miracles, and what was there in the
assertions of these simple individuals to produce
Lect, 12,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 307
the belief of a doctrine which the profoundest
reasonings of unaided wisdom had been found too
weak to establish? Why should the words of
a few fishermen of Galilee bring conviction to
the mind upon that immortality of the soul which
the works of the most revered of the philosophers
had never been able to create? The efforts of
reason had been employed for ages in a vain
attempt to disseminate the doctrine of a future
state. In the space of a few transitory years the
foolishness of the preaching of some despised and
humble Jews, secured for it a firm and a general
reception ; and it is impossible to account for this
unusual readiness of belief, without supposing-
them to have accompanied their speech with some
irresistible evidence of divine authority. Had
these Christian promisers of eternal and unspeak-
able glory not sanctioned their promises by the
demonstrations of the spirit and of power, men
would have risen up from their preaching, as one
did from the perusal of Plato, believing indeed
whilst they listened, but ceasing to believe ere the
voice of the preacher had ceased sounding in their
ears. It is not then the mere doctrine, but the
full assurance of a future life which Christianity
conveys, that we are to reckon as one of the
secondary causes of its success; and such an
assurance could have been made sure to the
x2
308 HUISEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 12.
converts, in the absence of philosophic arguments,
only by the testimony of some miraculous proof.
It is easy to talk of the pure and austere
morals of the Christians as one of the reasons
of the progress of the Gospel. It is a delightful
and a copious theme, but. never could it have
contributed to the general propagation of the
faith. The Christians were not allowed to pos-
sess any virtues. They were held as atheists, as
immoral, as impure; and their character, there-
fore, would not attract, but rather repel, the
penitent, whilst he who professed and called him-
self a Christian would be bound in obedience to
his faith to be holy above all, and yet be accounted
a sinner above all. In a word, he would have to
undergo the difficulties, without receiving the
rewards of virtue in the life that now is; and it
is plain that he would never trust to the promises
of reward in the life to come, without some un-
deniable proof of the truth and authority of the
book in which they were written.
The union and discipline of the Christian
body, too, if truly it did exist, whence could it
arise in early times, and whilst the Gospel was
neither protected nor ruled by the state, and when
there were no Acts of Uniformity to compel, nor
Lect. 12.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 309
any undeviating forms of faith to regulate assent,
if not from union of sentiment; and whence that
universal harmony of opinion, if not from a con-
viction of the divine infallibility of some common
document to which they appealed and from which
they drew their doctrines ?
"We are told of the miraculous powers ascribed
to the primitive Church, and I have reserved the
consideration of this cause, as the most important,
to the last. Now I ask, if it be possible that mira-
culous powers could be ascribed to the Church
without being possessed by it? and if not, I shall be
most ready to admit the operation of this cause.
Consider then the state of the world at the
period in which Christianity appeared.
It was an age of scepticism and of the
" fashion of incredulity ;" and one of the brightest
ornaments of ancient philosophy gloried in the
uncertainties of academic doubt. Why was this
" fashion of incredulity" suspended when applied
to the Christian Church, so far as even to ascribe
to it miraculous powers ? Surely the general habit
of scepticism would have extended itself most
eagerly to those powers, had they not been sup-
ported by some undeniable proof of their reality.
At no period can the unbelief of those who neg-
310 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [ect.*l&
lect to inquire into any fact be construed into an
argument against its truth. But in an age of
scepticism and incredulity every single individual
who believes in its occurrence affords a strong
probability of his faith being founded on a solid
basis.
It was an age in which the greater part of the
civilized world were the subjects of one govern-
ment ; and this, whilst it facilitated the preaching
of truth, would have facilitated also the detection of
falsehood. In some remote and secluded country
an imposition might possibly rise up to maturity,
and then go forth and gain an establishment in
other kingdoms, because supported and sanctioned
by the faith of a whole nation. But Christianity
was spread over the limits of a mighty empire by
the individual efforts of single teachers. In those
days too the world was in a state of general
peace, and men, like the Athenians, had little else
to attend to but the hearing or the telling of each
new thing ; and being perfectly settled and secure,
had neither hopes nor fears to distract them, nor
any end to answer, nor any party to serve, by
attributing to Christians what they did not possess.
It might not have been so had Christianity ap-
peared in the days of Csesar and Pompey, and
been embraced by either from political motives ;
and it was not so in after times, when each
Lect.1%.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 311
emperor courted or persecuted the faithful, accord-
ing as he desired or disregarded their support.
Lastly, it was an age in which the human
mind had reached the highest stage of intellectual
cultivation; and such an age, it is evident, is
least favourable for obtaining credit for what does
not exist. In a period of ignorance and barba-
rity, truth and falsehood are almost upon a level,
but when the spirit and freedom of inquiry pre-
vail, it may sometimes happen, that what is true,
is rejected ; but it will seldom be found that what
is untrue is believed.
For all these reasons, therefore, we hold it
most unreasonable to imagine, that multitudes of
various nations, and in an enlightened age, should
ascribe to the Church the miraculous powers
which it never exercised ; and under these cir-
cumstances we glory in attributing the conversion
of the world to its possession of miraculous powers,
as to a leading cause.
Take the matter, then, in which way you
will, examine the obstacles which Christianity
had to surmount, or investigate the causes by
which it may be supposed to have been favoured,
and you will find, that the former could never
have been overcome, without the aid of Heaven;
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 12.
nor the latter have been of use except the reli-
gion itself had been divinely true. " Mightily
grew the word of God and prevailed," because
it was the word of God, and because God made it
to prevail.
With my reasonings upon evidence I have
done. Yet before I quit the subject, perhaps
never to resume it again, for God only knows
what is written in the book of fate, I would be-
seech you to bear with me for a moment, whilst
I speak but a few words more, and no longer to
the understanding, but to the heart. It is no
vain or idle inquiry, in which we have been en-
gaged. It is no contest of mental ingenuity or
eloquence; nor does it relate merely to the pass-
ing interests and pleasures of the world and the
flesh. It is the fight of faith, it is the war of
God, arid of salvation ; it is a struggle for the joy
or misery of the soul for ever. As such, I have
met it. I have come to it in all its awfulness.
I have studied it by day, and meditated upon it
by night, and poured forth upon its sacred de-
fence the powers and the energies of the best
member that I have ; and God is my witness,
how, in the consciousness of want and weakness,
I have never ventured to come before you with-
out having implored the aid of his eternal Spirit.
Yet I feel the vastness and immensity of the
Lcct. 12.] HULSEAN LECTUBES, 1820. 313
subject too great to be comprehended in all its
height and depth, or be enforced in all its in-
effable strength, by the limited and languid efforts
of a mortal man. After all, I feel that I must
have spoken often feebly, and fear that I may
have spoken sometimes foolishly. Here, then,
where is the termination of my duties, is the com-
mencement of yours ; and we would exhort you
ever to bear in mind that those that teach, as
well as those that hear, are but men; and to look
with all patience and long-suffering upon their
infirmities ; and what you perceive to be foolish,
correct in the spirit of charity ; and what you
hear to be feeble, receive in the spirit of meek-
ness and docility. Lay not the errors of the
advocate to the unsoundness of his cause ; nor
judge of it by the imperfections of his manner or
his reasoning. Rather lay to heart the unspeak-
able importance of the question itself, and pray
to God with fervency and frequency, that he
would give you a right judgment in all things,
but especially in that upon which eternity de-
pends. I say not this, as in complaint for any
neglect or severity I may have endured. I ought
rather to pour forth my gratitude for the atten-
tion and seriousness you have bestowed. Neither
do I mention this merely to obtain an opportunity
of expressing my feelings of thankfulness ; but
to press with affectionate earnestness upon your
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led, 12.
memories, how much the energy and excellence
of instruction depend upon the qualifications and
conduct of those that hear. Little do they, whose
listless countenance and wandering eye betray
the indifference of a vacant mind little do they
know how much they deaden the future efforts of
the minister of God, and how much they dimmish
the profit they might have derived, through
God's blessing, from his words, and how fearfully
they endanger the final salvation of their souls.
We all know where it is written, that death and
judgment are appointed to all; and it is to pre-
pare you to meet that death with pious resigna-
tion, and to come unto that judgment with the
steady calmness of a reasonable hope, that I have
laid these considerations before you. The ordi-
nances of God, whether of prayer or preaching,
are ordained for the spiritual edification of the
Church ; and 'each member of the Church will be
questioned in the last awful day as to the profit
he has drawn from these opportunities of good.
There the employment of all our years, our days,
our hours, nay of this very hour itself, will be scru-
tinised. It will then be no excuse for our inatten-
tion and carelessness, to urge that the instructor
was wanting in the powers of reasoning, the energy
of diction, or the beauties of imagination. To this
only will it be required that we should give an
answer, whether he spake the things which be-
Lect. l&.J HULSEAN LECTUJIES, 1820. 315
long unto salvation in the words of soberness and
the accents of solemnity ; and whether we list-
ened in the spirit of reverential seriousness, and
engrafted the virtues he recommended into the
tenor of our lives. Let us, therefore, so struggle
against the infirmities and propensities of our
nature, as to consider only what is the profit
which we may draw from our hearing. Let us
regard the temple of the Lord, not as an intellec-
tual, but as a spiritual school ; not merely as a
place where we may strengthen the understand-
ing and increase our knowledge, but as it is
in deed and in truth, a place appointed for the
improvement of the soul the seed-time of eter-
nity, and the providential means of enabling us to
accomplish the holy end and hope of Christianity
the preparation of the heart to meet its God.
DISCOURSE XIII.
1 Con, chap. xii. latter part of ver. 3.
" No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost."
THROUGH ten long Discourses have I been
labouring to establish the truth of Christianity
upon the foundations of reason. I have taken the
subject of religion as I would have taken a subject
in philosophy ; and, viewing it in all its different
bearings, have considered the principles of
Christian evidence, and the objections of unbe-
lievers, as if every thing that is valuable in this
world and the next, the faith of every Christian,
the very existence of the Gospel itself depend-
ed upon the force of my answers, and the truth
or untruth of my own peculiar views. I have
spoken as to unbelievers, and reasoned as with
unbelievers ; and gathering the various weapons
of warfare from the writings of the most powerful
divines, would trust, that infidelity, when com-
paring the strength of the argument on both
sides, can have no very great cause to triumph
Lect. 18.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 317
in her superior strength. Such inquiries and
occupations as these, are most holy and most
useful, when applied to those who believe not, and
belong not to the Gospel ; because they may teach
them the necessity of distrusting the firmness and
beauty of the temple of Reason, when brought
into competition with the temple of Christianity.
They may also be satisfactory to ourselves, as
believers, because they tend to improve our con-
duct, and increase our faith, by giving us a means
of appreciating the security of our trust, and
furnishing us with a shield against those arrows
of the enemy, which, however severely and fre-
quently defeated, he still continues, whilst flying,
to throw back, like the Parthian, against his pur-
suing conquerors. But never, never should we
forget, that the perpetuity of the Gospel depends
not, for its defence, upon carnal weapons alone.
That the gates of hell shall not prevail against
the Church, is a promise and a prediction of
the Lord which will be fulfilled ; not because
the defenders of the Church are able and eloquent,
and their reasonings deep and sound not because
it stands in the words of man, but because it is
built upon the rock of ages, and standeth in the
power and in the wisdom of God.
By reflections like these, I would humble
my own understanding, and I would humble
818 HULSEAN LECTUHES, 1820. [Led, 13.
yours. I would quench every feeling of self--
confidence. I would bring down the pride of
man's heart. I would teach him that the safest
reliance is not upon the profound arguments of
learning, nor upon the force of philosophical
trains of thought, nor upon the efficacy of any
thing that he can work out in the nature of evi-
dence for himself, however nobly conceived, or
sublimely expressed ; but upon the arm of the
Almighty. I would say that faith a faith by
which "with the heart man believeth unto right-
eousness, and through the mouth confession is
made unto salvation" is the gift of God ; and
would both learn and teach the wisdom of a
meek and entire dependence upon Heaven, by
repeating, by enforcing, and by illustrating the
unequivocal declaration of the text, when taken
in its most literal sense, that, " no man can say
that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. 3 '
This, to many, is a hard saying, and has been
of difficult reception with Christians of every age ;
but more especially with those whose habit it
has been, to regard religion in an intellectual
point of view ; and to measure the probability and
the merit of every opinion solely by the standard
of the common processes of ratiocination in other
subjects. To acknowledge that faith is the gift
of God, is, according to their philosophising and
lect. 13.] HULSEAH LECTURES, 1820. 319
logical views, to take away all virtue and praise
from belief, and to strip infidelity of all its guilt.
For if we cannot admit or say, that Jesus is the
Christ ; if we cannot teach or cordially acquiesce
in the truth and divine authority of the Gospel,
and in the claims of Jesus to be the Christ, with-
out being assisted in arriving at that conclusion
by the influence and co-operation of the Holy
Spirit ; then they contend, that, since God giveth
the Spirit only to whom he will, and communi-
cates it only in what measure he will, there can
be but little fault in our not being possessed
of that quality which depends upon the will of
another not immediately, indeed, but yet ulti-
mately upon the will of another inasmuch as God
alone can endue us with the means of coming to
a right conclusion in the matter.
But whatever may be the difficulties attending
the subject, the absolute necessity of God's assist
ance, through the Holy Spirit, to inspire us with
the faith as well as the feelings of a Christian, is
one of the leading doctrines of the Gospel. It is
unequivocally and frequently inculcated, not only
by the Apostles of Jesus after his death, and the
full development of the Christian scheme, but with
quite as much plainness and certainty by Jesus
himself. It may be questioned perhaps by some,
whether the context and phraseology of the words
320 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 13.
which I have placed at the head of the present
Discourse, though apparently, and in their literal
meaning, confirming the doctrine in its fullest
extent, are yet sufficiently clear to support the
idea without some other corroboration. But there
is abundant proof to^be deduced from other and
independent passages. St. Paul* informs us that
spiritual things are spiritually discerned: and
that " the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness
unto him : neither indeed can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." He con-
sequently considers faith as one of the fruits of
the Spirit, f Our Lord himself is also equally
positive in declaring that without him we can do
nothing ;J and that no man can come to him
who is not drawn of God;|| that is, to whom
the power of coming to him is not given by the
Father ; for that he only who is of God heareth
and receiveth God's word. The doctrine that
faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit, and the
gift of God, is in reality but a branch of that
great and universal principle so distinctly and
solemnly laid down by the Apostle, ^f that " we
are not able of ourselves to do any thing, as of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God." The
same divine origin is attributed without excep-
* 1 Cor. ii. 14 t Gal. v. 22. J John xv. 5.
|| John vi, 44. John viii. 47. 11 1 Cor. iii. 5.
Lect. 13.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820.
tion to all that we do, and must of course include
that most peculiar and efficacious of all Christian
graces, a sincere and never-failing Christian faith.
With these various passages before us it is al-
most impossible to suppose,, when we take the
spirit and expressions of them all into consider-
ation, that we are mistaken in considering the
assertion contained in the text to be a legiti-
mate doctrine of the New Testament. In some
sense or other, it is quite evident, that " no man
can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
Ghost." I shall therefore proceed upon the pre-
sumption that such is the declaration of Scripture,
and endeavour to point out, as well as I am able,
in what sense the mysterious declaration is made,
to vindicate its propriety and consistency, and
to shew that so far from being unreasonable, it
is a just, an useful, and a consolatory reflection.
In the first place, then, though the Spirit is
frequently said to be necessary, it is never said
to be the only thing necessary to the attainment
of faith, or any other virtue. Neither are its
influences ever represented as irresistible in their
operations, or as determining the judgment with-
out the exercise of those ordinary faculties of
reason which the Deity has communicated in
different proportions, as it seemeth best in his
own sight, to every man. The mind must com-
HOLSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led: 13.
pare what the Spirit suggests ; and human labour
and meditation must be added to divine assist-
ance and gifts. The Jews are commanded to
search .the Scriptures for a testimony to Jesus.
The Bereans are commended for fulfilling the
precept, and yet the Apostle puts up his prayer
to the Almighty that he would lead his converts
into a right understanding in all things ; and by
the mere act of uttering the prayer, has inti-
mated, that he considered a right understanding
in every thing as a gift of Heaven. Paul, he
teaches us, is to plant ; Apollos to water ; and God
to give the increase whilst the very nature of the
metaphor implies the existence of a soil whose
natural energies may be roused into operation by
their united labours. The promise of the Spirit,
then, was notgivenwith any intention of precluding
the use, but of aiding the infirmities and imper-
fections, of reason. The whole vigour of our
intellectual faculties must be devoted to the in-
vestigation of, the truth of Christianity; and we
must argue, and inquire, and dispute, and work
out our own faith, with the same humility and dili-
gence with which we work out our own salvation,
and for the same reason, too, because it is God
who assists and alone can render us competent to
the task.
Again, though it be perfectly true,
Lect. 13,] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 323
gives his Holy Spirit only to whom he will, and
in what measure he will ; that is, in other words,
makes his own will the guide and law of his gifts ;
yet such is his ineffable wisdom, and his boundless
benevolence to man, that we may feel assured
that his own will is the best of all guides in their
distribution, and that his mercy will never with-
hold what is needful for the salvation of any
individual, nor refuse to impart it to that extent
in which it may be requisite for his attainment of
every necessary qualification of a Christian.
These points being once admitted, every ob-
jection to the doctrine as infringing upon, the
liberty of man, or as inconsistent with the prin-
ciples of impartial justice, must altogether vanish.
But the difficulty of illustrating the extent and
mode of the Spirit's operation upon our belief
still remains to be considered ; and the variety
of ways in which the Holy Ghost may contribute
to the formation or stability of our faith is what
still demands from us an attentive consideration
proportioned to the obscurity and importance of
the subject.
1. To acquiesce from habit or education, or
from any other accidental cause, in the truth of
any proposition into whose nature and evidences
we have instituted no previous inquiry, is what
Y2
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect.13,
the world calls prejudice. The thing to which
we have assented may be true or false; but we
have no adequate means of judging either of the
one or the other. The zeal of the Pharisee in
making proselytes to his sect, proved only the
bigotry o his own mind. The stubborn perse-
verance 6f the Jew in defending his error
through evil report and good report, proves only,
in the opinion of Christians, that Providence still
continues, in fulfilment of prophecy, to spread
the veil of ignorance over his heart; but in nei-
ther case can it convince us that the sentiments
they maintain are built upon a solid foundation ;
nor can it in either case afford any security to
themselves that they will remain unchanged in
their present views. Inquiry or circumstances
may destroy their prejudice in favour of their
early creed. - The faith of a Christian, in like
manner, if it aspire to any thing more than
the character of a prejudice, should rest upon
some rational ground, which cannot be acquired
without a knowledge of some portion, at least,
of the various arguments for the truth of the
Christian revelation, and without some general
idea of the consistency of the precepts and doc-
trines of the Gospel, with the dictates of reason
and the attributes of the Deity. And this know-
ledge can "never be attained without a solemn,
serious, and impartial investigation.
Led. 13.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 325
Occupied, however, with the cares of the
world, unnerved by indolence, desirous of ease,
and engrossed by visible objects; endued with
passions which find their full gratification only
in perishable and earthly things, and formed
;only to expatiate over the regions of nature and
of sense, man is almost universally indisposed
to pay any great attention to spiritual subjects.
He is unwilling to diminish the comforts of the
body solely with the view of enlarging the powers
of the mind. He is unwilling to increase his
sorrow for the simple purpose of increasing his
religious knowledge. It is only in the ministers
of religion, and, so strongly is the love of ease
attached to human nature, that it is not so often
as could be wished, even amongst them, that
there is to be found a ready and a constant incli-
nation to search into the evidences and exhaust
the treasures of divine truth. Interest and re-
putation are too frequently the motives of our
energy, when we do enter upon these sacred
studies, and when this stimulus is once with-
drawn, when we have reached the height of
our ambition, or been checked by the recurrence
of unmerited and unexpected disappointments,
we too frequently perceive our serious pursuits
as the servants of God, fading away into the
easier occupations of the literary or domestic
character. Now it is the province of the Spirit
326 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Zed. 13.
to co-operate with us in curing these defects, to
overcome this universal love of ease, to subdue
this indisposition to spiritual subjects, to quench
or correct this impatience of interruption in our
more congenial pursuits, and to give us the
will to make, and diligence to persevere in that
steady and conscientious inquiry into the reve-
lation of God, without which we can hope to
establish no rational or solid belief either in our-
selves, or others.
2. But the Spirit, even where the will happens
to be present, is, in many instances, necessary to
give us the power of instituting such an inquiry
into the evidences of revealed or natural religion
as may be sufficient to place the security of our
faith beyond the reach of danger. Those who,
by accident or circumstances, have been deprived
of the advantages of a liberal education ; whose
line of life has thrown them out of the habit of
scientific investigation ; whose reasoning faculty
has been choaked by the weeds of prejudice, or
degenerated into barrenness from neglect; or,
lastly, to whom it has pleased God in his wisdom
to grant but a small proportion of intellectual
talent such persons, if left to the agency of
their own unassisted endeavours, must ever want
either the power or the opportunity of establish-
ing in themselves a faith which may resist the
Lect. 13.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 327
temptations of the world and the ingenuities of
sophistry. For though the broad and leading and
general arguments in favour of the Gospel are so
plain in their nature, as to be easily comprehended
by the weakest capacities, and so forcible in their
effects as to be convincing to the most learned,
and irresistible to all, when fairly considered ; yet
the wickedness and perverted reasonings of the
enemies of Christianity have contrived to raise so
many and such plausible objections ; to array them
in such strength, and clothe them with such ele-
gance, that those who have not been taught in
the sophistry of man's wisdom, and who are not
competently acquainted with the history of past
ages, and deeply imbued in many of the various
and abstruser species of human learning, cannot
possibly detect the trivial and fallacious nature of
the arguments advanced by infidels cannot pos-
sibly frame for themselves a satisfactory answer
to all their cavils.
Except the Spirit of God, therefore, came to
aid the weakness of the ignorant and confirm
their belief, by enlightening their understanding
and establishing the conclusions they had already
drawn that belief would stand upon a very
slippery and uncertain foundation. The poor
and uneducated, without the assistance derived
from the Deity through the influence of the Holy
328 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 13.
Spirit, would, in their profession of Christianity,
be fleeting as a shadow, and unstable as water.
The goodly fabric of their hope in Jesus, if raised
only upon the treacherous sand of human reason,
would be liable to be destroyed by every storm ;
to be blown about by every wind of doctrine,
and then, finally, overwhelmed in the torrent of
infidelity. Next to God and to his Christ, and his
Spirit, Satan is universally represented to us in
Scripture as the most powerful of spiritual beings,
an enemy as much superior to the human race
in wisdom, as he is inferior to the Deity himself.
And, consequently, if we would effectually resist
the artifices of this active and intelligent being,
who is ever on the wing seeking whom he may
devour never wearied in the ways of deceit,
and departing from us only to renew the attack
with tenfold vigour, we must not trust wholly to
our own weakness, but to the co-operation of
him who is the source and fountain of all strength.
We must be bold and confident only in the
Lord.
But, 3rdly, Where men from nature, habit, or
education, have been blessed with good desires,
and gifted by God with the power of bringing
their desires to good effect where men possess
the faculty of fulfilling their inclinations, by
making a serious inquiry into the evidences of
Lect. 13.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 329
revelation, and thus establishing their faith upon
the rock of reason .even here, too, no man can
say that Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy
Ghost. The result of the inquiry still depends
upon the Holy Spirit working in and with the
understanding. It is true, indeed, that it is the
province of reason to give a decision upon the
force of the various arguments advanced in de-
fence of, or in opposition to, any fact or any
proposition. It is equally true, also, that reason
when left to herself, when seeing clearly and
fully, and impartially, will, in every instance,
decide rightly. When unbiassed in her judg-
ment, her judgments will always be true. But
does reason in the present state of the world,
and the miserable corruption of man, ever see
clearly, fully, or impartially ? Is she ever, in fact,
left to herself, or unbiassed in the judgment she
pronounces ? Before the fall of our first parents,
she might be so. Whilst the image of God
remained unsullied and unsubdued, in the mind ;
whilst the heart of man was right with God, his
understanding might speak the language of truth ;
but it certainly cannot now be said to be in that
happy situation. " The heart of man (it is the
unerring word and not the fallible minister of
God, who is making the declaration) is deceitful
above all things, and desperately wicked." And
this deceitfulness and wickedness of the heart
330 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 13.
must necessarily influence the decisions of the
head. , We see also but in part, says St. Paul,
therefore, not fully. We see as through a glass
darkly ; therefore, not clearly. We are subject
also to a variety of passions, every one of which
is strictly forbidden in the Gospel; and we
are therefore interested in denying the truth
of the Gospel, so long as we have the slightest
desire of indulging those passions. For he
that hath in him any principle contrary to the
Christian doctrines and precepts, cannot possibly
by his own unassisted powers attain unto the
sincere profession of the Christian faith, He
must overcome and resign the principle, before
he can expect to believe ; because that principle,
by making him prejudiced in his judgment of
the proofs of revelation, will necessarily destroy
his impartiality, and, through that, his capability
of drawing just conclusions. The terrors of
conscience spring from the dread of future
punishment. The Gospel denounces that punish-
ment against every kind and degree of iniquity.
It permits not a virtue to be omitted, or a sin to
be practised with impunity. It requires us to
love God above every thing, and our neighbour as
ourselves. It declares, that neither fornicators, nor
unjust, nor covetous, nor idolaters can by any
means enter the kingdom of Heaven. Whoever,
therefore, is destitute of piety or of charity
Led. 13.] HULSEAN LECTUKES, 1820. 331
whoever is under the influence of any evil incli-
nation, will be disposed to admit a corrupt or
imperfect religion upon the slightest proofs ; to
reject a just and holy one, though confirmed by
the strongest which are possible. His passions
and his prejudices will give new force to the
objections against the latter, and an undue
weight to the arguments in favour of the former.
And this is the reason why Mahometanism and
Idolatry, contrary as they are to reason and the
purity of God, have enjoyed such extensive pre-
valence for so many ages, and received such
implicit and universal belief amongst so many
nations. The corruption of human nature pleads
powerfully in their behalf, indisposes their dis-
ciples to inquire impartially into their merits, and
leaves them without a wish to entertain a single
doubt as to the divinity of their origin. It is the
same reason also, which has armed so many ene-
mies against the cause of Christianity, because it
opposes the evil of our ways, and thus makes it
the interest of every ungodly mind to bring down
her honours to the dust. In a word, " the flesh
lusteth always contrary to the spirit."* ' The
carnal mind is enmity against God;"t and con-
sequently the carnal mind cannot readily receive
the purity of those things which are revealed by
the Spirit of God.
* Gal. v. 17. f Rom. viii. 7-
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 13.
Since the passions, then, are the leading ob-
.stacles to the reception of Christianity, whatever
subdues or diminishes those passions will tend in
the same degree to promote our faith.
That faculty, however, and that only, which
will enable us to correct and purify the heart, is
the Spirit of God. " I bring my body under
subjection," says St. Paul ;* and then, lest we
should foolishly misinterpret his meaning, or
.conceive that he gloried in his own strength, he
immediately adds, "yet not I, but the Spirit of
God which is in me."
The Spirit of God, therefore, is the Author of
faith, either by disposing our minds to inquire
into the truth, or by enduing us with the power
of deciding with impartiality upon the evidences
of revelation, or by teaching us most sincerely to
obey, or to intend at least to obey, the will, that we
may the more readily receive the word of God. If
we use with fidelity the natural powers with which
we are endowed, and close not the eye and the
ear of the understanding against the divine in-
fluence of the Comforter, we have the promise of
God as strongly to assure us that, whatever be
our station in life, or however weak our reason,
or imperfect our education, we shall be preserved
* 1 Cor. ix. 27-
Lect, 13.] HULSEAN LECTUEES, 1820. 333
from the snares of the beguiling sceptic, and attain
to the blessedness of a solid faith, as we have to
convince us that, if we be sincere in our endeavours,
and pure in our intention of obeying the precepts
of righteousness, we shall be saved from the
temptations of a sinful world and conducted into
the way of everlasting holiness. The effects of a
lively faith and the virtues of a Christian life, will
alike be wrought and continued in those who look
up to God for help, and despise not or resist not
the workings of his grace.
Just and true then, are all thy sayings, O Lord
God Almighty ! And though really repugnant to
the pride, and apparently inconsistent with the
reasonings of man, yet true and just also it is,
that no man can acknowledge Jesus to be the
Christ, or preserve the possession of his faith
without fear, unless guided and protected by the
superintending and abiding influence of the Holy
Ghost. I should be sorry, however, to quit the
subject here. That pearl of great price to be
sought for in every doctrine revealed to us in
Holy Scripture, is to be found in the moral and
practical consequences which flow from it; and if
it be necessary to prove the assertion of the text
to be correct, it is still more necessary to shew
that it has a direct and immediate tendency to
the happiness and virtue of mankind.
334* HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 13.
" Work out your own salvation," says the
Apostle, " with fear and trembling ; for it is God
which worketh in you;" because though your
weakness is made strength through the favour of
God, yet that favour may be lost by negligence
and presumption, and it therefore demands your
utmost diligence to make your calling and election
sure. But if such the arduous labour we are
called to, such the uncertainty of our hope, even
with the assistance afforded and the confidence
inspired by the promise and possession of the
Spirit, how miserable would be the state of man
were that guidance and protection withdrawn. It
would then be impossible to work out ' our sal-
vation at all. Many even of those to whom I am
now speaking, and perhaps the greater part of
every other Christian congregation, are deprived
by circumstances of the learning and leisure re-
quisite for the scientific consideration of the more
abstruse and difficult branches of Christian evi-
dence, even granting that the consideration would
always terminate in a successful issue, and. that
they had no prejudices to warp or disturb their
conclusions. But our sufficiency in this, as in all
other things, is of God, and faith is one of the
fruits of the Spirit. The most erudite- and la-
borious cannot grasp this " substance of, things
hoped for, this evidence of things not seen/' by
their own ordinary and unassisted reason. If left
Led. 13.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 335
to themselves they must indeed fear and tremble
in the most appalling sense of the words, with the
fear and trembling of horror and despair, arising
from the consciousness of the misguiding influence
and subtlety of their passions and prejudices.
For the natural man, when left alone, is left
naked and defenceless to the enemy within and
to the enemy without, to the recklessness of
his own depraved affections and the insinuations
and artifices of evil men. Whilst, on the other
hand, with the comfortable assurance we now
enjoy of God's assistance, we are only subject to
the fear and trembling of a cautious vigilance.
And whoever is diligent to make the best use of
the natural and supernatural powers intrusted to
him by his Maker, the Almighty still speaks to
him in the language in which he once consoled
the Apostle of the Gentiles, " My grace is suffi-
cient for thee."* Though without the Spirit of
God we cannot reach unto an effectual and
saving faith, yet, if we resist or refuse not the
proffered aid, God is both able and willing to keep
us from falling, and present us faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy.
Truth and consolation, then, are both com-
bined in the doctrine, that faith is the gift of God.
But it possesses, lastly, another advantage. It is
* 2 Cor. xii, 9.
336 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 13.
a doctrine admirably calculated to promote the
end of all revelation, the cause of piety and
morality. This will be evident if we consider
that the only two conditions which God has ap-
pointed to us as the means of calling down the
co-operating influence of his grace, are sincerity
of intention and fervency of prayer. " If any
man will do the will of my Father," says our
Saviour,* " he shall know of the doctrine whether
it be of God." Consequently, since to know of
the doctrine whether it be of God, is one of the
gifts of the Spirit, it is the same as if he had said,
"If any man be willing to do the will of my
Father, he shall also be assisted by the Spirit of
my Father." Some natural powers of acting
and of thinking, perhaps of acting and thinking
rightly too, are given to all, and though not
sufficient for all the purposes of redemption,
yet if we diligently exert the faculties we possess,
our exertions will be crowned with more abun-
dance. That faith is the gift of God, is,
therefore, a strong inducement to intentions
and endeavours after innocence and holiness of
conduct, since it is first of all necessary that we
strive to arm ourselves with the breast-plate of
righteousness, before we can hope to be armed
by God with the sword of the Spirit and the
helmet of salvation.
* John vii. 17.
Lect. 13.] HULSKAN LECTURES, 1820. 337
But that branch of the whole duty of man,
to the practice of which this doctrine, of the ne-
cessity of the co-operation of the Spirit to the
attainment of faith, most forcibly persuades, is a
fervency and frequency of prayer. " If ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your heavenly
Father give the Spirit to them that ask him,"
saith the Lord. The necessary things of the
present life, the provisions and garments of man,
the light of the glorious sun, and the powers of
understanding and thought, God sheds indif-
ferently upon the evil and the good. He feeds
the lion and the lamb, and sends down his bounty
on the just and the unjust. But to those only
who ask, will spiritual blessings be communicated.
To those only who knock, and who knock in the
accepted time, will the Spirit open the everlasting
gates of the Gospel. We are called upon, there-
fore, we are above all things called upon, to be
fervent and importunate with God in our suppli-
cations for this heavenly gift. Our prayers cannot
be too fervent, cannot be too importunate. For
there are limits even to God's mercy. He will
assuredly forsake us whenever he shall see that
we have finally forsaken him ; and whenever he
may think fit to leave us to our own weakness and
wickedness, we shall become the slaves of pas-
sion and the enemies of all true reason, and the
338 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 13.
despisers of the Gospel ; outcasts from Heaven's
mercy, and lost, utterly and deservedly lost, for
ever ; knowing, as we do, that we had the power
of saving ourselves through the aid of the Spirit
of God ; and knowing also that the prayers we
have neglected, were the only effectual and ap-
pointed means for calling down his spiritual
blessings on our heads.
DISCOURSE XIV.
PHILIP, chap. ii. ver. 12, 13.
" Work out your otvn salvation with fear and trembling ; for it
is God which norketh in you, both to mill and to do of his good
'pleasure."
THE grain which is scattered upon the face of the
earth striketh root downwards, and being watered
by the genial showers of Spring, doth bring forth,
first the blade, and then the ear, and then the
full corn in the ear, and man doth eat thereof, and
is satisfied. The word of God is the seed of grace,
and being sown in an honest and a good heart,
and watered by the continual dew of God*s bless-
ing, doth bring forth, first, the knowledge of the
truth, and then upon that stem the flowers of
holiness, and then the fruits of holiness unto
everlasting life. From the great storehouse of
this spiritual seed from the Holy Scriptures,
which are full of the revelations of the Almighty
God, I have this day selected a seed of most
z2
340 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 14.
precious value a seed at once of doctrine, of
reproof, of correction, and of instruction in
righteousness ; and I humbly pray, that though
it be sown by the weakness of a man, it may be
quickened by the power of the Holy Ghost, and
bring forth fruit an hundred- fold unto your
eternal glory.
" Work out your own salvation," says the
Apostle, " with fear and trembling ; for it is God
which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure." Three circumstances are
here pointed out to our consideration, and im-
pressed upon our minds with an affectionate
earnestness : First, the thing to be done ; secondly,
the manner of doing it ; and thirdly, the reason
of both. " Work out your own salvation."
That is the thing to be done. Work it out " with
fear and trembling." That is the manner of
doing it. And the reason of both is founded
upon the merciful assistance of Heaven. " For
it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure/'
"Work out your own salvation." It is of no
common salvation that the Apostle thus speaks,
It is not of any deliverance from human suffering 1 ,
wrought out for us by the power of any human
arm ; but of that deliverance which cometh of
Lect. 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 341
God alone, the deliverance of man in all his parts
and powers; the salvation both of his body and
his soul; the salvation of body and soul from
death and from hell; from the anguish of the
second death, from the torments of the devil and
his angels ; from the sufferings of wicked spirits
and of wicked men, condemned for their sin to
everlasting misery. Salvation when thus inter-
preted is a word of mighty import indeed ; but
even thus interpreted we have not exhausted the
whole of the blessings it conveys. They that are
made partakers of the salvation which is in Christ
Jesus, are made also partakers of eternal glory,
and, together with a deliverance from the horrible
wretchedness of the damned, shall obtain also
a reward in the pleasures and society of the right-
eous. For, according to the doctrine of the
Apostle, it is a faithful saying, that they who
through Christ are dead to the power and punish-
ment of sin, shall live with him in holiness, and
reign with him in happiness, according to the
number and nature of their works.
This then is the salvation of the text, and
when we consider its extreme value and unspeak-
able importance, we need no longer wonder at
the earnestness with which we are exhorted to
"work it out;" to labour early and late; daily
and duly all the days of our life; to give all heed
HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Led. 14.
and diligence to make our calling effectual, and
our hope secure. It is a fearful thing to endure
pain in body, or anguish in mind, even though it
be but for a passing hour ; and redemption from
the wretchedness of even this mortal state, would
be purchased by the sufferer with the sacrifice of
all the glory that wealth or dominion could bring.
But it is a far more fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God ; a far more joyful thing
to be redeemed from his wrath. It is a peace
that passeth all understanding, which he experi-
ences who is delivered from the fear of a state of
woe without comfort, because without end. Who
could dwell, or even think of dwelling, with ever-
lasting burnings, and not desire, and seek, and
struggle for redemption ?
But how is this salvation to be wrought out ?
What must I do to be thus saved ? This is the
language of nature and sincerity. It is a ques-
tion the first and the greatest which can occur
to the mind of any godly man. I shall proceed
to answer it by inquiring, who they are that will
obtain, and who that will fall short of the salva-
tion of Jesus ?
Sin, and sorrow, and death : -these things are
often joined together in the language of man,
and never will be separated from each other in
Lect. 14] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 343
the judgments of God. Because of sin came
sorrow and death : because of sin the gates of
hell were opened, and sinners and they that forget
God are those who shall be turned into hell, and be
closed for ever in the darkness of its gloom. But
are we not all sinners ? I tremble whilst I confess
that we are. And will not hell then be our
portion for ever? I rejoice with trembling,
whilst I declare through God and my Saviour,
that it may not. " The grace of God hath ap-
peared, bringing salvation unto all men." The
Gospel has been revealed, and offered the redemp-
tion of souls, and given the gift of eternal life to
every faithful man, who denying ungodliness,
and worldly lusts, shall live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. These are the
conditions upon which we shall be redeemed from
punishment ; and in working out our salvation,
our labour and our care must be directed to fulfil
them. We must study to banish from our
thoughts every evil imagination, and from our
conduct every evil deed. We must learn to walk
honestly in the sight of God, and of man ; we
must be charitable and kind, and useful and just
to our neighbours, and submissive and pious
before God. We must have faith first of all, and
then to our faith add virtue, and temperance,
and chastity, and sobriety, and brotherly love, and
compassion. If in any of these things we should
344 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
fail, or if at any time we should fall from the
practice of our duty, we must again work out our
salvation, by renewing ourselves again unto re-
pentance, and bringing forth again the graces of
a holy life, which are the only natural fruits, the
only solid proof of a repentance which is indeed
sincere.
But how shall we be able to do this great
thing? Work as much as he will, how shall
a corrupted man, with a corrupted mind, and in
a corrupted world, be enabled to work out his
salvation by a steady and persevering course of
righteousness; or how, after having long been
accustomed to do evil, shall he break through the
sinful habits of a sinful nature, and change at
once the colour of his life, and wash away the
spots of his iniquity ? My brethren, with man
these things are impossible. But the Apostle
builds upon a better foundation than the weakness
of mortality? He tells us that "it is God that
worketh in us both to will and to do" and with
God all things are possible, and through him we
are able to do all things. Moses stretched forth
his hand, and the waters were divided, and be-
came a wall unto the children of Israel, on the
right hand and on the left. Moses smote the
rock with his rod, and the waters flowed withal,
and the children of Israel were refreshed in the
Led. 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 345
wilderness, and were saved from death. But
what was there in the arm of Moses, that the sea
should obey it and stand still ? Or what in the
rod of Moses, that it should turn the flinty rock
into a living fountain? Let me freely, though
reverently, speak to you of the patriarch Moses.
He was indeed great, because he was indeed
good, in his generation. But except in the matter
of his goodness except in his superior faith and
trust in his Maker except in his more ready
obedience to the holy desires which the spirit of
the Lord inspired into his soul, he was no more
than the rest of the Israelites, and the rest of men.
Like them, like us, like every human being that
is born of woman, he was compassed with infir-
mities, and tried with afflictions, and subject to
terror, and surrounded with sorrow. Of himself
he was able to do nothing, but all the mighty
acts which he did, he did because " it was God
which worked in him both to will and to do of
his good pleasure," and because Moses did not
resist the will of God, or neglect or abuse the
power with which he was endued. If to the Jew
God was very liberal, we have the promise of
his beloved Son, that to Christians in all spiritual
and necessary things, he will be still more so.
Over the world without us, he will perhaps give
us no power because we are not called upon to
save a people. But we are called upon to save
346 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
ourselves, and he will give us a power over the
rebellious world that is within us. Stretch forth
but your hands in faith and sincerity to God, and
surely he will separate between you and your lusts.
He will divide the tumultuous sea of your passions,
and open for you a way to escape from your
enemies into the land of eternity. He will cause
the waves thereof to stand still and harmless on
your right hand and on your left, and make you
to walk in safety and unhurt through the over-
flowings of ungodliness, which, without his con-
trolling arm, would have drowned your souls in
perdition and destruction. Be ye never so faint
and weary in the wilderness of sin, yet if in humi-
lity you smite upon your breast, and say, God
be merciful to me a sinner ! he will melt the stony
heart within you, and turning it into a fountain of
piety and love of love to man and love to your
Maker, refresh you with the living waters of the
comfort of the Spirit, and strengthen you by its
power for your pilgrimage, through life* All these
thing's will the Lord our God do for those who
yield to the godly motions which he inspires, and
presume not to despise his inward workings.
For God will not always work in us effectually,
and never does he work in us irresistibly to will
and to do the things which we will not to do. We
are taught by his holy Apostle, St. Paul, that we
may resist the influence, that we may quench the
Lect. 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 347
power of God's working, and if we dare to do the
deed, assuredly and in justice his grace and aid
will be withdrawn from us for ever. The Spirit
would not always strive with man in the days of
Noah, neither will it do more in these latter days.
Often grieved, and often slighted, he may often
return in mercy, and in kindness renew in our
hearts the will and the power to work out our
salvation. But the day and hour are fixed fixed
in the counsels of the everlasting God, the day
and hour beyond which his grace will be irre-
coverable, and our misery unavoidable.
Work out therefore your salvation " with fear
and trembling" not with that dreary fear which
is the grave of all holy hope not with that un-
reasonable trembling which is destructive of the
spirit of energy and cheerfulness; but with a godly
fear, and a salutary trembling with a fear lest
you should fall, with a trembling lest you should
fail with a fear lest you should forfeit, with a
trembling lest you should come short of salvation
with a fear lest any part of your duty should be
neglected with trembling lest any part of it
should be forgotten with fear lest you be over-
come by temptation with trembling lest you
should be deserted by God, in whom alone we are
powerful to do good, and to obtain everlasting
life. Work out your salvation with a fearful
848 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
feeling of your natural weakness, and a trembling
consciousness of your natural unworthiness. For
what thing, even in this transitory world, does
a man desire to gain, and not fear to lose ? The
love of what being, the possession of what bless-
ing ? And what is there that is uncertain in this
world, and man does not tremble for the uncer-
tainty ? So should it be in the great work of our
salvation. Salvation may not be ours, and we
should fear to lose, and labour not to lose it.
Salvation depends upon the future as well as the
present tenour of our lives and thoughts, and the
future is always uncertain, and so we should
tremble for the uncertainty, and strive the more
zealously to make it sure. We should fear, be-
cause we have a work to do which, being left
alone, we were unable to perform. We should
tremble, because though God empowers us to
fulfil the task, he works neither so irresistibly nor
so certainly upon our hearts as finally to prevent
our falling from grace, or to preclude the possi-
bility of our failing of Salvation.
Such is the nature of that fear and trembling
which the Apostle recommends; not that fear
which is slavish and terrible, but a fear which is
the very reverse of confidence, and whose end is
caution ; not the trembling of agony and despair,
but a trembling which is opposed to carelessness,
Led, 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 349
and. whose effect is diligence ; diligence to make
our calling and election sure.
Yet, even this salutary fear and trembling
should not be carried beyond proper bounds,
nor permitted to rise so high in degree as either
to deject the spirit, deaden the energies, or
destroy the understanding of man. We ought,
we must always keep our own weakness and un-
worthiness in our view, but then we should not
think of our own weakness and tmworthiness
alone. "We should mingle with this melancholy
reflection upon ourselves, the consolatory remem-
brance of the power and the mercy of God, his
will and his ability to help and to defend us in all
our dangers. It is the just God that worketh in
us, and we should fear and tremble lest his justice
be offended, and his aid withdrawn. But it is
also the God of tender mercy that worketh in us,
and we should neither fear nor tremble beyond
measure. He may desert us ; and we should be
careful. But he will not willingly desert us, and
we need not be anxious without cause. We
should fear, but not be fearful ; we should trem-
ble, but not be cast down.
Work out your salvation, therefore, with in-
dustry unwearied and unbending, because, of all
the things you can desire, it is the most important.
350 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
Work it out with fear and trembling, because,
of all the things you have to do, it is the most
difficult, and to be attained only through the
divine assistance ; "for it is God which worketh
in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure."
In these latter words many wavering and dis-
trustful minds have found a cause of sorrowing ;
and stumbling at the stumbling-block of predesti-
nation, have gone on in their way in despondency,
and ended their pilgrimage in despair. They
have thought, that if God worketh in us of his
good pleasure alone, we have no certain assurance
that he has, or does, or will work in us at all
that it is only in the elect that his operations are
made effectual to good, and that in all the rest of
the world, they are but the more certain means
of increasing their damnation, of giving them
over more surely to a reprobate mind, a lost estate,
and unavoidable and everlasting misery. Truth
and holiness forbid that we should ever be be-
trayed into such unrighteous views of thy dis-
pensations, most merciful Lord ! Here, at least,
in the passage before us, they have not, I think, the
shadow of a foundation. To my imagination, these
few and simple words " of his good pleasure"
have communicated, in moments of spiritual sad-
ness, a consolation greater than I am able to
express. For consider upon whose good pleasure
Led. 14.] HUXSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 351
it is, that I am taught to rely. It is upon that of
the Almighty and most Merciful God, in whom the
fulness of power, and of wisdom dwells, and with
whom there is neither variableness nor shadow of
i
turning. To whose good pleasure could I more
safely trust the issue of my happiness or misery
than that of a Being like this ? On whose will
could I more securely rest for the means of work-
ing out the salvation of my soul, than that of the
Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
Reflect but for a moment what God is, and what
he has done for us. He is our Creator and Re-
deemer our Creator in holiness and happiness,
our Redeemer from misery and guilt and he
has done that for us which we would not have
done for each other, and could not have done for
ourselves. He has sent his beloved and his only-
begotten Son into the world, to take our miserable
nature upon him to be despised and rejected,
and slain to suffer death upon the cross to
shed his blood for the remission of our sins, and
thus to become, if possible, the Saviour of all
mankind. All these things hath the Lord done
for man. And is he still to be regarded as a
respecter of persons, a character which by the
mouth of his prophets he has expressly denied ?
After all that he has done to prove the kindness
and the impartiality of his nature, is his good
pleasure presumptuously to be doubted and
358 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
feared ? If it were a man, or even an angel, of
whose good pleasure the Apostle spoke, we might
distrust the justice of his judgment, and fear lest
his ways should be unequal, and his dealings
according to favour. But it is God that worketh
in us God who is the maker of all and whose
mercy is alike over all his works a God of whom
we are expressly taught by the Apostles of
Jesus, that it is his will that all all without
exception, should come to faith and repentance,
and everlasting life that all should come to the
knowledge, and the practice, and the enjoyment
of holiness. Surely the pleasure of such a Being
must be good ; surely it must be the good plea-
sure of such a Being to give to every one the
means of attaining what it is his desire that they
should attain. Surely it must be the good plea-
sure of such a Being to work in every man, at
some period of his life, both to will and to do the
things which are necessary for the working out
of his salvation. But with regard to ourselves,
at least, my brethren, there can be no reasonable
cause of doubt. Unto every one of us at least
there has been given grace both to will and to
do. God hath called us often and openly into his
vineyard, and if we still stand idle, the fault and
the guilt are in ourselves. Every soul amongst us
has been called this day by the language of the
Apostle, and taught, in the words of the text, the
Lect. 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 353
way, the truth, and the life. Listen, therefore,
obediently and seriously to the call, and diligently
work out your own salvation for no other way
will be effectual to good. If you will not work
for yourselves, God will not work in you and
man cannot work for you. We may pray for
your conversion we may preach for your in-
structionfriends may exhort, and rebuke, and
reprove, and implore the Spirit may strive and
struggle, and resist, and restrain but all is in
vain if you either neglect his warning, or abuse
his goodness. Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have
always obeyed even so now much more, after
having heard the doctrine of the Apostle, and
been instructed in its meaning, and learnt its
power; labour to work put your own salvation
with fear and trembling for yourselves. For
there is no other way given under heaven to man
whereby he maybe saved, but only in the diligent
use of the means which have been put into his
power. That we are able to work out our salva-
tion at all, it is indeed only because God worketh
in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure :
but then whilst we humble the pride of righteous-
ness by this reflection on our weakness, let us at
the same time console our minds, and strengthen
our hearts, by remembering that God will never
leave nor forsake us, if we be diligent to make
our calling and election sure Therefore once
A A
854i HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 14.
more and again let me intreat you, to " work out
your own salvation with fear and trembling ; be-
cause it is God that worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure"
You may, perhaps, some of you, my brethren,
be inclined to regard the anxious and repeated
earnestness with which these holy and awful
truths have been impressed upon your thoughts,
as unsuitable to the spiritual state of persons,
who, like yourselves, are in the habit of duly
attending upon the ordinances of religion, of re-
ceiving the sacramental elements of offering up
prayers to the throne of grace, and devoutly
studying the word of God. You may think them
fitted only for babes in Christ, and such as have
been imbued with no more than the mere rudi-
ments of faith. Should an imagination so vain
have sprung up in your minds, correct it, ere it
become strong and dangerous, by considering
to whom the words of the text were originally
spoken. It was to the Philippians that the Apos-
tle gave this serious and awful warning. It was
to the Philippians who had sympathised with
him in his bonds, communicated to his wants,
ministered to him in his afflictions, obeyed his
commandments, loved Christ, and loved each
other, that St. Paul addressed this earnest and
solemn exhortation. It were in vain for any to
Lect. 14.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 355
think that they are beyond these Philippians
these beloved disciples of this great Teacher of
Christianity, either in knowledge, or in purity,
or in safety. It were in vain for any to flatter
themselves with the hope of being placed above
the reach of spiritual danger, however deep in
holy wisdom, however full of holy faith, however
perfect in holy practice, or however void of of-
fence towards God and towards man. None but
the saints in light ; none but the redeemed, the
sanctified, or the glorified ; none but the angels
in heaven, or the spirits of just men made per-
fect ; none but those whom death hath freed from
the bondage of sin and corruption, can say that
they are free from the obligation of listening to
the commandment and warning of the text.
Upon all on this side the grave, it is the bounden
duty of God's ministers to impress the great
necessity of doing the work of salvation, and of
doing it diligently and sincerely, tremblingly alive
to the consciousness of their own infirmity, fear-
fully aware of the dreadfulness of a fall, and
humbly relying upon the strength of that Almighty
arm which alone can make our feeble efforts
effectual to accomplish the work.
A A 2
DISCOURSE XV.
ISAIAH, chap. i. mr. 16.
" Cease to do eml> learn to do well."
I NEVER yet sat down to peruse the Word of God,
whether from duty or from inclination, without
rising from the performance of the task both
instructed and pleased ; pleased with its varied
excellence and unnumbered beauties, and instruct-
ed by those important and general rules of life,
those useful compendia of the whole duty of man,
which are at once the shortest, the most intelli-
gible, and the most comprehensive which were
ever given to direct the ways of wanderers. Pre-
cepts there are in the Scriptures, such as revealed
wisdom only could have taught, yet such as the
natural understanding immediately approves. In
short, let any man open his Bible with sincerity
and devotion ; let him read it with impartiality
and attention, and I doubt not but he will close
it, with a full conviction of its superior excellence,
and enriched in his mind with some universal
Led. 15.] HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. 357
rule of religious wisdom, which, without burthen-
ing his memory, he may carry in his bosom into
the haunts of the world, and apply without diffi-
culty to the business of life.
Upon one of these rules it is my present inten-
tion to discourse. " Cease to do evil, learn to do
well," says the prophet, in the name of the Lord,
to the children of Israel his people. The exhort-
ation stands amidst a variety of others ; but it is
so plain that it requires no explanation, and so
general in reference, that it may be applied, with
equal force and justice, to every age and genera-
tion upon earth. Our labour, therefore, will be
confined to the mere object. of enlarging upon
its simplicity, and pointing out its importance.
It consists, then, it is evident, of two distinct pre-
cepts ; the first of which enjoins an abstinence
from what is evil, the second a pursuit of what
is good; and this. is the general language both of
reason and revelation, when speaking of. what is
required to make the moral creature acceptable
in the sight of his Creator. Flee from sin and
follow virtue. Who does not acknowledge in
that sentence the common voice of conscience
and of natural religion? "The grace of God
that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
teaching us that, denying all ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
358 HULSEAN JLECTUIIES, 1820. [Lect. 15.
and godly in this present world."* Who does
not remember in these words, the similar, but
more awful declarations of the minister and the
Gospel of Jesus Christ? "To cease to do evil,
and learn to do well" that these are things which
God and duty demand at the hands of every one,
will therefore admit of no dispute, and stands not
in need of any further proof. But the propriety
of these duties is not the only thing which may
be gathered from the words of the text. By the
nearness and order in which the two command-
ments there follow each other, are marked the
intimate and inseparable union and connexion
which the mind of the prophet considered as
subsisting between them ; and we are thus led
to examine further into the necessity of ceasing
to do evil in order that we may learn to do well ;
the influence which ceasing to do evil has in the
preparation and encouragement of the mind to
do well ; and the absolute and unalterable neces-
sity of both, in order to secure the end of hope,
the salvation of our souls.
" Cease to do evil." This is the first and
great commandment of Religion to her children,
of the Almighty to those who are the seekers of
a blessed immortality. It might seem almost
needless to insist upon a principle of duty at once
* Titus ii. 12.
Ltd. 15,] HOLSEAN LECTUHES, 1820. 859
so evident and true, were it not that half the
world are in the habit of deceiving themselves
both as to what evil is, and what it is to cease to
do evil. Evil in the opinion of most men is
that only, or at least principally that, which either
the law punishes or the world condemns. All
beyond this is considered as faulty, indeed, but
not truly evil, as wrong, perhaps, but scarcely
worthy of the name of sin ; and so if what they
do be hidden from the knowledge of man, or if
they do nothing which may call forth the voice
of public censure or the pain of public punish-
ment, they verily think with themselves that they
are not guilty as concerning this thing. But in
the all-seeing eye of Him who never slumbereth,
who is ever about our path and about our bed,
and knoweth at all times both what we do and
what we would do ; to Him, whose will is writ-
ten in his works in all the nations and languages
under Heaven ; with that Being who is finally to
reward and judge, every thing which revelation
as well as reason, every thing which the Gospel
as well as the Law hath forbidden, will be regarded
and counted to us for evil. When the Christian,
therefore is taught to cease to do evil, he is
warned not only to flee from what the word of
man hath made so, but he is told that every lust
of the heart, every foolish and sinful habit of
thought, of word, or of action, every thing which
360 HULSEAN LECTURES, 1820. [Lect. 15.
is called or made evil by God's word, is to be
utterly relinquished, if it has ever been indulged,
and to be altogether avoided, if happily, through
the grace of God, he may have hitherto been free
from its guilt. This the law of Chris 
