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There is none of that waste which betrays ostentation, none of that scantiness or delay which implies a defect of power, no circumstance unworthy of the divine author of them; but the wisdom and power of God are united in the cause of the Gospel, and the same fitness and dignity, which distinguished the miracles of Jesus, are transferred to the works which his Spirit enabled his apostles to perform.

193

CHAP. IX.

PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY.

IN our Lord's prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, we meet with these words: "This Gospel of the kingdom shall first be preached to all the world for a witness to all nations, and then shall the end come." These words mark the space intervening between the prediction and the termination of the Jewish state, that is, a space of less than forty years, as the period within which the Gospel was to be preached to all nations. When we attended to the fulfilment of this prophecy, we found that the account given in the book of Acts, of the multitude of early converts, of the dispersion of the Christians, and of the success of Paul's labours, is confirmed by the most unexceptionable testimony. We learn from Tacitus, that in the year of our Lord 63, thirty years after his death, there was an immense multitude of Christians in Rome. From the capital of the world the communication was easy through all the parts of the Roman empire; and no country then discovered was too distant to hear the gospel. Accordingly it is generally agreed that, before the destruction of Jerusalem, Scythia on the north, India on the east, Gaul and Egypt on the west, and Ethiopia on the south, had received the doctrine of Christ. And Britain, which was then regarded as the extremity of the earth, being frequently visited during that period by Roman emperors or their generals, there is no improbability in what is affirmed by Christian historians, that the Gospel was preached in the capital of this island thirty years after the death of our Saviour. The last fact which Scripture contains respecting the propagation of Christianity is found in the book of the Revelation. It appears

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from the epistles which John was commanded to write to the ministers of the churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea, that there were, during the life of that apostle, seven regular Christian churches in Asia Minor. We may consider the facts hitherto mentioned as the fulfilment of that prophecy which I quoted. As to the progress of our religion, subsequent to the period marked in the prophecy, we derive no light from the books of the New Testament, because there is none of them which we certainly know to be of a later date than the destruction of Jerusalem. But there are other authentic monuments from which I shall state to you the fact; and then I shall lead you to consider the force of the argument for the truth of Christianity, which has been grounded upon that fact.

The younger Pliny, proconsul of Bithynia, writes in the end of the first century to the emperor Trajan, asking directions as to his conduct with regard to the Christians. The letter of Pliny, the 97th of the 10th book, ought to be familiar to every student of divinity. He represents that many of every age and rank were called to account for bearing the Christian name; that the contagion of that superstition had spread not only through the cities, but through the villages and fields; that the temples had been deserted, and the usual sacrifices neglected. There are extant two apologies for Christianity, written by Justin Martyr, about the middle of the second century, and one by Tertullian before the end of it. These apologies, which were public papers addressed to the emperor and the Roman magistrates, mention with triumph the multitude of Christians. And there is a work of Justin Martyr, entitled a dialogue with Trypho the Jew, published about the year 146, in which he thus speaks," There is no nation, whether of Barbarians or Greeks, whether they live in waggons or tents, amongst whom prayers are not made to the Father and Creator of all, through the name of the crucified Jesus." Both Christian and heathen writers attest the general diffusion of Christianity through the empire during the third century; and in the beginning of the fourth, Constantine, the emperor of Rome, declared himself a Christian. If we consider the emperor as acting from conviction, Christianity has reason to boast of the il

lustrious convert. If we consider him as acting from policy, his finding it necessary to pay such a compliment to the inclinations of the Christians is the strongest testimony to their numbers. After Christianity became, by the declaration of Constantine, the established religion of the empire, it was diffused, under that character, through all the provinces. It was embraced by the barbarous nations who invaded different parts of the empire, and it received the sanction of their authority in the independent kingdoms which they founded. From them it has been handed down to the nations of modern Europe. It is at present professed throughout the most civilized and enlightened part of the world; and it has been carried in the progress of modern discoveries and conquests to remote quarters of the globe, where the arms of Rome never penetrated.

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Upon these facts there has been grounded an argument for the truth of our religion. Gamaliel said in the sanhedrim, when the Gospel was first preached, "If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it." The counsel has not been overthrown, therefore it is of God. The argument is specious and striking, and, with proper qualifications, it is sound. But much caution is required in stating it. And as I have given you the facts without exaggeration, so it is my duty to suggest the difficulty to which the argument is exposed, and to warn you of the danger of hurting the cause which you mean to serve, by arguing loosely from the success of the Gospel.

SECTION I.

We are not warranted to consider the success of any system which calls itself a religion, as an infallible proof that it is divine. The prejudices, the ignorance, the vices, and follies of men, a particular conjuncture of circumstances, and the skilful application of human means, may procure a

Acts v. 36, 39.

favourable reception for an imposture, and may give the belief of its divinity so firm possession of the minds of men, as to render its reputation permanent. We justly infer from the moral attributes of God that he will not invest a

false prophet with extraordinary powers. But we are not warranted to infer that he will interpose in a miraculous manner to remove the delusion of those who submit their understandings to be misled by the arts of cunning men. He has given us reason, by the right use of which we may distinguish truth from falsehood. He leaves us to suffer the natural consequences of neglecting to exercise our reason; and it is presumptuous to say that there can be no fraud in a scheme, because the Almighty, for the wise purposes of his government, or in just judgment upon those who had not the love of the truth, permitted that scheme to be successful.

As the reason of the thing suggests that success is not an unequivocal proof of the divine original of any system, so the providence of God has afforded Christians a striking lesson, how careful they ought to be in qualifying the argument deduced from the propagation of Christianity. For, in the seventh century of the Christian era, there arose an individual in Arabia, who, although he be regarded by every rational inquirer as an impostor, was able to introduce a religious system, which in less than a century spread through Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Persia, which has subsisted in vigour for more than eleven hundred years, and is at this day the established religion of a portion of the world much larger than Christendom. The followers of Mahomet triumph in the extended dominion of the author of their faith. But a Christian, who understands the method of defending his religion, has no reason to be shaken by the empty boast. For thus stands the argument. When we are able to point out the human causes which have produced any event, the existence of that event is no decisive proof of a divine interposition. But when all the means that were employed appear inadequate to the end, we are obliged to have recourse to the finger of God; and the inference, which arises from our being unable to give any other account of the end, will be drawn without hesitation, if there be positive evidence that, in the accomplishment of the end, there was an exertion of divine power.

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