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with me, hath lifted up his heel to excite in our minds, a more than against me." The consequences of common emotion of unfeigned rethe traitor's sin were, as to himself, exceedingly calamitous. Attempts have indeed been made to prove, that they were not so, but that the repentance of Judas was evangelical, and consequently, that he was pardoned, and is now in heaven; but these opinions are completely at variance with the entire impression which is made upon our minds, by the history of the traitor's conduct after his defection, and also, as appears to the writer of this paper, with our Lord's assertion respecting the traitor, "Woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born!" If Judas advanced by penitence and faith to heaven, and is now enjoying the felicity or eternity, how it could have been better for him that he had never been born, is inconceivable? No, this assertion of our Lord's, together with the natural impression which is made upon our minds by the conduct of the traitor after his apostacy, force upon us the painful conclusion, that the consequences of his sin were, as to the traitor himself, exceedingly calamitous. These consequences of the traitor's sin, are suggested by Peter in those words of his which are placed at the head of this article, "Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place." He fell from his apostleship. This may be considered as the least adverse circumstance which attended his iniquity, yet it was by no means a circumstance not to be deplored. When a person who has been raised to a place of eminence in the church, renders himself unworthy of his situation; when a man is banished from any office in the church on account of transgression, it is a proof that that man's case is bad. The condition of such an individual is suited

gret; we view him as cut off from the heritage of God, while the adversity of his condition is augmented in our estimation, by reflecting upon the elevation from which he descended to it. This emotion of regret we feel in reference to Judas, he fell from his apostleship; to this the words of Peter which we have just cited immediately refer, Acts i. 25. He fell into despair. The account of this is given in Matt. xxvii. 3, 4, 5. His despair appears to have been produced gradually, it seems to have commenced with what Christ said to him in the garden; this, at once, set all the aggravations of his sin before his eyes. We hear no more of him after the treacherous kiss, till we hear of his despair; he seems immediately to have slunk away as though struck dumb with horror, and confounded at the greatness of his crime, and Christ's knowledge of it. His only hope appears to have now been, that Jesus would escape from his enemies; imagining, it is probable, that this would lessen his guilt in betraying him. But, "when he saw that Christ was condemned," this increased his consternation. He seems scarcely to have known what to do; at length he concludes to go to the chief priests, and in their presence to confess his sin, and speak a word in favour of his master, which might induce them to let him go; but when they would not hear him, and all hope was gone, he threw down with despair the thirty pieces of silver, went out and hanged himself. We see herein the bitterness of his despair; he was naturally covetous, yet he could not keep his ill-gotten money, the silver was a witness against him, it "eat his flesh as it were fire;" he casts it therefore from him as that, the love of which had been the occasion of his wretched

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On the Evidences of Christianity.
Addressed to a young Person of
Sceptical Opinions.
MY DEAR FRIEND,

In the time of Ezra, five hundred years before the coming of Christ, when the Jews had regained their liberty under Cyrus the Persian monarch, and the city and temple of Jerusalem were rebuilt, the different books of the Old Testament, historical, prophetic, moral, and devotional, had not only been written, but published and received as genuine writings. They were soon afterwards united with the Pentateuch, and for a series of ages appealed to by all parties in the Jewish state, as books of the highest authority in subservience to the law. During our Lord's ministry, the Old Testament scriptures were not only owned by the Jews themselves, and publicly read in the synagogues, but were appealed to by our Saviour and his apostles, as the standard of divine truth. They had also been translated into the Greek and Syrian languages, and were generally known and acknowledged by, the learned in all parts of the civilized

world.

In reference to the New Testa

I will now endeavour to redeem my promise, by inviting your attention to the authenticity of the scriptures. It appears to me that there is no fact, recorded on the page of history, confirmed by greater evidence than the genuineness of the sacred books, the acknowledged repositories of the christian religion. By the testimony of Josephus, and ment it is equally certain, that the other ancient writers of unquestion- profession of Christianity has exable authority, as well as by the isted in the world for nearly eighcontents of the Old Testament it- teen centuries, during the whole of self, it is proved beyond a doubt which, subsequent to the death of that the people of Israel had existed the apostles, the books now before in the land of Canaan, as a distinct us have been quoted and appealed nation, for a period of fifteen cen- to by its different advocates, in disturies before the commencement of puting among themselves, or repelthe christian era. During the whole ling the accusations of unbelievers. of that period, they were distin. It is as unquestionable as a fact of guished from other nations, by the this nature can be, that the people peculiarities of their civil and reli- who first received the gospels and gious institutions, which, as they epistles from their several authors, believed, had been established and felt a deep sense of their importrecorded by divine authority in the ance as the compositions of inspired five books of Moses, their undoubt. men, and employed the utmost care ed lawgiver. In all the proceedings to have them handed down for the of their rulers, whether they were benefit of posterity unmutilated and men of piety or not, the genuineness unimpaired. In multiplying copies and authority of those writings were of the Old and New Testament, never questioned, but uniformly ac- every precaution appears to have knowledged and maintained. been used, both by Jews and Chris

tians, to prevent mistakes. And the to be the truth. It can scarcely be divisions and controversies which imagined that the five books of have taken place in all periods of Moses, and other historical parts of the christian church, are a sufficient the Old Testament, would have proof, that no material alterations been received with universal confior gross corruptions of the original dence by the people of Israel, even could have been attempted, to serve when the events recorded must have the interests of a party without be- been fresh in their memories, if the ing discovered and exposed. In statements contained in them had short, my dear sir, there are no been untrue. Some of the facts are books come down to us from ancient indeed very extraordinary, which sages, whose genuineness and pu- may seem to justify suspicions. But rity are better verified, or more in the greatness of these events would dubitable, than the holy scriptures. have rendered the imposture more In reading a book professedly his- notorious, and enabled every man torical, our first inquiry is, whether of common sense to detect the cheat. or not the statements contained in The miraculous events moreover it are true. If the events in ques- are interwoven with the common tion happened at a time or place, history in a manner so intimate and in which we had no means of know- inseparable, that if the latter be ing them by personal acquaintance, true, the former cannot be fallait would be right to inquire, whe- cious, but the whole must stand or ther the character of the historian, fall on the same ground. But the the nature of the events themselves, writings of the prophets are foundthe manner in which he states them, ed on the facts affirmed in the histhe sources from which he derived torical books, and by a continual his knowledge, and the testimony reference to past events and wellof other historians, sufficiently con- known customs, prove beyond a firm the veracity of the facts re- reasonable doubt, the credibility of lated. If the writers of national the statements which those books history were to publish a number of contain. fictions, falsehoods, or misrepresentations intermingled with the truth, many of their contemporaries would be induced to expose the deception, and consign their writings to contempt. In matters of great interest and universal concern, whether they be ancient or modern, near or remote, the truth or falsehood of a narrative is for the most part closely scrutinized and sufficiently confirmed.

If, moreover, we proceed to the New Testament, we shall perceive in the narratives written by the four evangelists, every appearance of the most sacred regard for truth. The facts which they record respecting our Saviour's doctrine, miracles, death, and resurrection, are amply verified by the acts of the apostles and the epistolary writings. Had they been untrue or even doubtful, the opponents of the gospel wanted If then, my dear friend, we ex- neither ability nor inclination to examine the scripture upon these prin- pose them to public scorn. ciples, we shall find in the particular their veracity in the most essential mention of times and places, per- particulars is corroborated by the sons and circumstances, and in the acknowledgments of the Jewish Sanwhole texture and style of writing, hedrim, and by the testimony of abundant proof that the sacred Josephus, Porphyry, Celsus, Pliny, writers intended to record nothing and a numerous host of writers, in but what they believed and knew the first three centuries, enemies as

But

well as friends. In short, whether structions were delivered; they were men of God, whose names should be embalmed in our memories, and spoken of with gratitude as the excellent of the earth.

we appeal to the books themselves, or to the foreign and circumstantial evidences of their credibility, no solid reason can be adduced to impeach the truth of a single narrative, much less to invalidate the claims of the whole volume.

Although bad men are sometimes made the instruments of moral good, yet it seems reasonable to expect, that the character of persons raised up by Divine Providence for important purposes, should, in a great measure, correspond to the work as signed. If the prophets and apostles were indeed the messengers of God, inspired to communicate to the world a revelation of his purposes and commands, it is but just to anticipate, in the discharge of their commission, those evidences of faith and piety, wisdom and integrity, purity and benevolence, fortitude and perseverance, which would verify their pretensions, and furnish an example of the truth and excellence of their religion.

In the character of Moses and the Jewish prophets, it must be confessed, we do not find an entire exemption from moral defect; nor can absolute perfection be looked for in any man. But no person, I conceive, can take an impartial review of their whole conduct, and, at the same instant, consider the time and circumstances in which they performed their part; without admiring the simplicity and purity of their manners, their manifest superiority to a selfish and vain ambition, the elevated fervour of their devotions, and the manly firmness they displayed in the hour of difficulty, martyrdom, and death. Their characters, viewed in comparison with the greatest sages of antiquity, instead of sinking, will rise in our esteem. In a dark and benighted age, they appeared as stars of the first magnitude. And though persecuted, in many cases, by the people for whose benefit their in

VOL. XVII:

With respect to the apostles of Christ, the same things may be affirmed more forcibly, and with stronger evidence. Though they had neither learning, opulence, nor power to promote their cause, they went forth in pursuance of their Lord's commission, as the avowed ministers of a new and a divine religion, intending to overturn, by their instructions, those false and pernicious systems of superstition which had been established for ages, and were every where supported by the great. And yet they were neither madmen, impostors, nor fanatics; but they spoke the words of truth and soberness, commending the gospel to every man's conscience in the sight of God, and, at length, suffering martyrdom in attestation of the doctrine they delivered.

What then, my dear Sir, shall be said and thought of the character of Christ himself, in whom, even his bitterest adversaries could find nothing to justify their malice, or to substantiate their charge? His unexampled excellencies, as delineated by the four evangelists in their simple unstudied narratives, leave on the Christian's mind a deep and indelible conviction that the authority he assumed was real, and the doctrines taught by him entitled to universal credence. That the author and finisher of our faith was a model of every virtue that can adorn humanity, or benefit the world, has been acknowledged indeed by many, who, at the same time, denied the truth, or questioned the authority of his doctrine. But no person, possessing the wisdom and virtue of our Saviour, to say nothing of his divine nature, could either be imposed upon himself, or attempt to impose on others, by assuming a commission for which

2 c

he had no credentials; or in propa- tually dependent, and intimately gating, under divine sanction, a re- combined. ligion, which, at the same time, was untrue. The character of Christ and his apostles may, therefore, be deemed a decisive evidence, that the system recorded in the New Testament, is indeed "the glorious gospel of the blessed God."

Allow me also, before I close this letter, to remind you that the different parts of divine revelation, though given to the church at sundry times and in divers manners, instead of being opposed to each other, are perfectly consistent and harmonious. The patriarchal dispensation prepared the way for the divine legation of Moses, the lawgiver of Israel. The spirit and design of the Mosaic institutions, were further developed and exemplified by the ministry and writings of the prophets till the close of the Old Testament. The divine authority of Moses and the prophets is acknowledged and maintained by the founders of the New Testament; and the accomplishment of their predictions is referred to, as one of the principal evidences of the Chris'tian faith. Though different persons were employed in different ages as the inspired messengers of God, there is nothing discordant or irreconcilable in their commission or doctrines. Some of their commands certainly were local, temporary, and prefigurative, and were in consequence abolished by the same authority, when the design of their insti tution had been answered. But whatever difference of a circumstantial nature may exist between them, their authority, their principles, and their designs, are the same. The different parts of the divine economy, including the patriarchal, the Jewish, and the Christian dispensations, must therefore be viewed as gradual disclosures of the same divine purpose, and modified applications of the same plan. Like the different wheels of the same machinery, they are mu

are

The New Testament is, in fact, the perfection of the Old; and includes all the discoveries we warranted to expect, till the consummation of all things. But, if the one be true, the other, though less important, must be true likewise. The New confirms and elucidates the Old, and is itself confirmed by the same circumstauce. Hence there exists in the different books of scripture, though written by different persons at remote periods, a coinci dence of design which has no analogy in the whole range of uninspired composition. Could the same number of books, written by the best authors in this or any other nation, at periods equally distant from each other, be collected into one volume of the same bulk, it would, on the contrary, exhibit a strange mass of contradictory and irreconcilable ideas. What then could produce in the sacred volume this remarkable agreement, but the unity of truth, and the unerring dictates of the same divine and infallible Instructor?

I should now proceed to the intrinsic excellencies of the sacred volume, but for the present, must leave these cursory hints to your candid and serious attention; while I again subscribe myself, dear Sir, Your affectionate Friend,

Harlow.

QUERY.

T. F.

WILL any considerations justify evangelical Christians in giving their support to a literary Institution, when its conductors have refused "to declare their adherence to Christianity," or even, that "nothing contrary to Christianity should be taught" by its Professors? Would not such conduct be in opposition to the Divine injunction," That ye coutend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints."

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