Homer or Virgil wrote such books; and whether what is related in the Iliads or Eneids be true or false? It is not two pence up or down to any man in the world. And therefore it is worth no man's while to inquire into it, either to oppose or justify the truth of these rela tions. But our very souls and bodies, both for this life and eternity, are concerned in the truth of what is related in the holy Scriptures; and therefore men would be more inquisitive to search into the truth of these, than of any other matters of fact; examine and sift them narrowly; and find out the deceit, if any such could be found: for it concerned them nearly, and was of the last importance to them. How unreasonable, then, is it to reject these matters of fact, so sifted, so examined, and so attested as no other matters of fact in the world ever were; and yet to think it the most highly unreasonable, even to madness, to deny other matters of fact, which have not the thousandth part of their evidence, and are of no consequence at all to us whether true or false ! VII. There are several other topics, from whence the truth of the Christian Religion is evinced to all who will judge by reason, and give themselves leave to consider. As the improbability that ten or twelve poor illiterate fishermen should form a design of converting the whole world to believe their delusions; and the impossibility of their effecting it, without force of arms, learning, oratory, or any one visible thing that could recommend them! And to impose a doctrine quite opposite to the lusts and pleasures of men, and all worldly advantages or enjoyments! And this, in an age of so great learning and sagacity as that wherein the Gospel was first preached! That these apostles should not only undergo all the scorn and contempt, but the severest persecutions and most cruel deaths that could be inflicted, in attestation to what themselves knew to be a mere deceit and forgery of their own contriving! Some have suffered for errors which they thought to be truth, but never any for what themselves knew to be lies. And the apostles must know what they taught to be lies, if it was so, because they spoke of those things which, they said, they "had both seen and heard, had looked upon, and handled with their hands," &c.* w Neither can it be said, that they, perhaps, might have proposed some temporal advantages to themselves, but missed of them, and met with sufferings instead of them. For, if it had been so, it is more than probable, that when they saw their disappointment, they would have discovered their conspiracy; especially when they might not only have saved their lives, but got great rewards for doing it. That not one of them should ever have been brought to do this, is full proof of their sincerity. But this is not all. For they tell us, that their Master bid them expect nothing but suffering in this world. This is the tenor of all that Gospel which they taught; and they told the same to all whom they converted. So that here was no disappointment.* For all that were converted by them, were converted upon the certain expectation of suffering, and bidden to prepare for it. CHRIST Commanded his disciples to "take up their cross daily, and follow him ;" and told them, that "in the world they should have tribulation;" that "whoever did not forsake father, mother, wife, children, lands, and their very lives, they could not be his disciples;" that "he who sought to save his life in this world, should lose it" in the next.|| Now that this despised doctrine of the cross should prevail so universally against the allurements of flesh and blood, and all the blandishments of this world; against the rage and persecution of all the kings and powers of the earth; must show its original to be divine, and its protector almighty. What is it else could conquer without arms; persuade without rhetoric; overcome enemies; disarm tyrants; and subdue empires without opposition! *Acts iv. 20. 1 John i. 1. + John xvi. 33 § Luke xiv. 26. + Matt. xvi. 24. See this argument fully and ably drawn out by PALEY, Evidences of Christianity, Part I. c. i-vi. * See the predictions of CHRIST in Matt. xxiv. 9. Mark iv. 17. x. 30. Luke xxi. 12-15. xi. 49. John xv. 20. xvi. 4. 33.; and the acknowledgment of the apostles on the subject of their sufferings in Rom. v. 3, 4. viii. 35--37. 2 Cor. iv. 8-10. 14. 16, 17. 2 Thess. i. 4, 5. Heb. x. 32-36. James v. 10, 11. 1 Pet. iv. 12, 13. 19. VIII. We may add to all this, the testimonies of the most bitter enemies and persecutors of Christianity, both Jews and Gentiles, to the truth of the matter of fact concerning CHRIST, such as JOSEPHUS and TACITUS; of which the first flourished above forty years after the death of CHRIST, and the other about seventy years after so that they were capable of examining into the truth, and wanted not prejudice and malice sufficient to have inclined them to deny the matter of fact itself of CHRIST. But their confessing to it, as likewise LUCIAN, CELsus, PORPHYRY, and JULIAN the apostate; the Mahometans since; and all other enemies of Christianity that have arisen in the world, is an undeniable attestation to the truth of the matter of fact. IX. But there is another argument more strong and convincing than even this matter of fact; more than the certainty of what I see with my eyes; and which the apostle Peter called a "more sure word," (that is, proof,) than what he saw and heard upon the Holy Mount, when our blessed Saviour was transfigured before him and two other of the apostles. For having repeated that event as a proof of that whereof they were eye-witnesses, and heard the voice from heaven giving attestation to our Lord CHRIST, (2 Pet. i. 16, 17, 18.,) he says, verse 19, "We have also a more sure word of prophecy," for the proof of this JESUS being the Messiah; that is, the prophecies which had gone before of him, from the beginning of the world; and all exactly fulfilled in him. Men may dispute an imposition, or delusion, upon our outward senses. But how that can be false, which has been so long, even from the beginning of the world, and so often, by all the prophets in several ages, foretold; how can this be an imposition or a forgery? This is particularly insisted on in the Method with the Jews. And even the Deists must confess, that the book we call the Old Testament, was in being in the hands of the Jews long before our Saviour came into the world. Y LESLIE'S work bearing that name.-The evidence from prophecy, and especially from prophecy as a system, is still more fully displayed in his Truth of Christianity Demonstrated; a work intended to be supplementary to this Short Method with the Deists. The translation into the Greek language, now existing, and knowr And if they will be at the pains to compare the prophecies that are there of the Messiah, with the fulfilling of them, as to time, place, and all other circumstances, in the person, birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our blessed Saviour, they will find this proof what our apostle here calls it, "a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts." Which God grant. Here is no possibility of deceit or imposture. Old prophecies (and all so agreeing) could not have been contrived to countenance a new cheat: and nothing could be a cheat that could fulfil all these. For this, therefore, I refer the Deists to the Method with the Jews. I desire them likewise to look there, Sect. xi., and consider the prophecies given so long ago, of which they see the fulfilling at this day with their own eyes, of the state of the Jews, for many ages past, and at present; without a king, or priest, or temple, or sacrifice, scattered to the four winds, sifted as with a sieve, among all nations; yet preserved, and always so to be, a distinct people from all others of the whole earth. Whereas those mighty monarchies which oppressed the Jews, and which commanded the world in their turns, and had the greatest human prospect of perpetuity, were to be extinguished, as they have been, even that their names should be blotted out from under heaven. As likewise, that equally remarkable prediction of our blessed Saviour, concerning the preservation and progress of the Christian Church,* when in her swaddling clothes, consisting only of a few poor fishermen. Not by the sword, as that of Mahomet, but under all the persecution of men and hell: which yet should not prevail against her. *Matt. xvi. 18. as the Septuagint or Alexandrine version, is incontestibly proved to have been made between 250 and 300 years before the birth of CHRIST. * See the able sermons on prophecy by Bishop HORSLEY, (Sermons, vol. II. serm. 15, 16, 17, 18.,) in which he shows the additional strength the evidences of Christianity derive from the fact that the predictions of the Old Testament are not isolated morsels, but parts of one great scheme, gradually and symmetrically developed, from the time of the fall until that of Malachi.--See also Bishop HURD's Lectures on Prophecy, and DAVISON's excellent Discourses on Prophecy. But though I offer these, as not to be slighted by the Deists, to which they can show nothing equal in all profane history, and in which it is impossible any cheat can lie; yet I put them not upon the same foot as the prophecies before-mentioned of the marks and coming of the Messiah, which have been since the world began. And that general expectation of the whole earth, at the time of his coming, insisted upon in the Method with the Jews, Sect. v., is greatly to be noticed. But, I say, the foregoing prophecies of our Saviour are so strong a proof, as even miracles would not be sufficient to break their authority. I mean, if it were possible that a true miracle could be wrought in contradiction to them: for that would be for God to contradict himself. But no sign or wonder, that could possibly be solved, should shake this evidence. It is this that keeps the Jews in their obstinacy. Though they cannot deny the matters of fact done by our blessed Saviour to be truly miracles, if so done as said; nor can they deny that they were so done, because they have all the four marks before-mentioned; yet they cannot yield! Why? Because they think that the Gospel is in contradiction to the Law; which, if it were, the consequence would be unavoidable, that both could not be true. To solve this, is the business of the Method with the Jews. But the contradiction which they suppose, is in their comments that they put upon the Law; especially, they expect a literal fulfilling of those promises of the restoration of Jerusalem, and outward glories of the Church, of which there is such frequent mention in the books of Moses, the Psalms, and all the Prophets. And many Christians do expect the same, and take those texts as literally as the Jews do. We do believe and pray for the conversion of the Jews. For this end they have been so miraculously preserved, according to the prophecies so long before of it. And when that time shall come, as they are the most honourable and ancient of all the nations on the earth, so will their Church return to be the mother Christian Church as she was at the first; and Rome must surrender to Jerusalem. Then all nations will flow thither; and even Ezekiel's temple |