CHAPTER II. CONTAINING ARGUMENTS TO PROVE THAT THE APOSTLES WERE NOT ENTHUSIASTS, FROM THEIR NOT REQUIRING FAITH IN OTHERS WITHOUT SUPPLYING SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE TO JUSTIFY IT. SECTION I. The Apostles converted men not by enthusiastic Delusions, but by working public and indisputable Miracles. IN the first chapter, religious enthusiasm has been described as perpetually discernible by two primary and essential characters; the first, credulity in believing without any, or at least without sufficient evidence, that a man's own mind is enlightened by divine inspiration; the second, presumptuous dogmatism in demanding the submission of others to the dictates of this supposed divine authority, without exhibiting any clear or satisfactory proofs of its reality. That the apostles and evangelists were free from the first of these characters, I endeavoured to establish, by enumerating those striking proofs of divine wisdom and power exhibited by their Lord, which first induced his disciples to attend his instructions, and acknowledge his sacred mission; and by stating the evidence addressed to their senses and their reason, which supplied such a firm conviction of his resurrection and ascension, that they devoted their lives to the promulgation of his Gospel, and did not hesitate to die as martyrs to its truth. The very charge of enthusiasm implies sincerity; and such sacrifices as the apostles submitted to, infallibly prove they were sincere. Admitting therefore that they believed the facts which they attest, the only question as to the source of their own conviction is, whether as to these facts they could have been deceived by any enthusiastic delusion? and that this was impossible, I trust, has been evinced. VOL. I. D Let me now pass to the second character of enthusiasm, that of demanding assent on insufficient evidence. In ascribing this character to it, I am confirmed by the authority of the same profound reasoner on the habits of the human mind, whom I have before quoted. Speaking of enthusiasm he observes, that, *"the assuming an authority of dictating to others, and a forwardness to prescribe to their opinions, is a constant concomitant of this bias of our judgments; for how can it be otherwise but that he should be ready to impose on other men's belief, who has already imposed upon his own?" Here again he distinguishes between the delusions of enthusiasm, and the clear evidence of divine Revelation. †"The holy men of old," says he, 66 who were sent to convince others, had a power given them to justify the truth of their commission, and by visible signs to assert their divine authority." On this ground the first teachers of the Gospel stand far removed from every suspicion of enthusiasm. Never did they claim assent merely on an unsupported assertion of being actuated by divine inspiration, of having been driven by a sudden and irresistible impulse, of having seen a divine light infused into their souls, needing no evidence but its own brightness. They did not appeal to obscure and doubtful proofs, such as agitations of mind, or convulsions of body, visions by night, or secret whispers by day. No: they claimed the assent of mankind to doctrines established by facts, facts which were themselves miraculous, and direct proofs of a supernatural interference; or which exhibited the accomplishment of prophecies, and thus evinced that divine Providence had introduced the scheme of which they formed a part. Of these facts they had been themselves eye-witnesses, but they had not been the only witnesses. Frequently the events were most public and undeniable. The resurrection of our Lord, his subsequent converse upon earth, and ascent into heaven, with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, seem to have been the only leading facts, of which numbers, besides Christians, had not been witnesses. Yet even these could not be termed private transactions; five hundred persons had seen our Lord at once, of whom, says St. Paul, addressing the Corin+ Locke on Enthusiasm, s. 15. Locke on Enthusiasm, s. 2. thians, "the greater part remain unto this present."* And instantly on the descent of the Spirit, the apostles appeared in public; "tand when it was noised abroad, the multitude came together; for there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven, Parthians and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea, in Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, strangers of Rome, Jews and Proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, who were all amazed, hearing them speak in their own tongues the wonderful works of God." Three thousand persons in one day added to the church, proved the certainty of the miraculous power which convinced their reason and established their faith. If a calm and steady appeal to plain and public events is such a proof of truth and soberness, as enthusiasm never can produce, that proof the evangelists supplied. Hear the language in which Peter addressed the assembled populace of Jerusalem :-"Ye men of Israel hear these words-Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as YE YOURSELVES ALSO KNOW: him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and with wicked hands have crucified and slain; this Jesus hath God raised from the dead, whereof we all are witneSSES. " Exactly the same is their language before the Jewish people, again collected by the § fame of a new miracle,-|| before the priests and elders, the rulers and scribes, assembled in council, to try and punish them, - before Cornelius, a Roman Centurion, who dwelt at Cæsarea, not many miles distant from Jerusalem, who had called together his kinsmen and near friends, to receive the glad tidings of the Gospel. In every place and before every audience, they repeat this language; and surely this is the language of manly reason and conscious truth, not of folly and fanaticism. Yet convincing and rational as was the appeal to past facts, it was not the only evidence from which the apostles claimed the assent of mankind to the Gospel. They had been chosen as peculiar witnesses of the resurrection of their Lord; the credit of * 1 Corinth. xv. 6. + Acts ii. 1-13. Acts iv. 1-12. Acts ii. 22-24, 32. this fact therefore must have rested solely on their own veracity; and in distant countries the whole series of facts appealed to, must have been unknown. Now, though they undoubtedly established their veracity upon the firmest ground, by teaching a doctrine of piety and purity, and submitting to distress and danger of the severest kind in its support; yet they were frequently enabled to evince their truth, and divine mission, by proofs more striking than any past transaction however notorious; by present miracles; by a direct appeal to the senses of their hearers. They appealed to the effusions of the Holy Spirit, proved at the moment by the miraculous gift of *tongues. "God, says the apostle, has shed forth that which ye now see and hear." They appealed to the man at that moment healed, whom all the people knew "to be the same who had been daily laid at the gate of the temple, to seek for alms, having been lame from his mother's womb; but whom they now, full of wonder and amazement, saw walking, and leaping, and praising God." When Peter by a word restored to instant health, "Eneas, who for eight years had been confined to † his bed," all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." Not less public was his raising Dorcas from death, ‡“which was known throughout all Joppa, so that many believed on the Lord." When at Lystra, § Paul with supernatural power commanded one who had been a cripple from his birth, to rise and stand; and perfect strength was instantly bestowed upon him. So public and signal was the act, that the multitude of spectators exclaimed, the "gods are come down to us in the likeness of men,” and scarcely were restrained from offering to them sacrifices as to gods. But these particular instances are but a few, incidentally recorded, out of a multitude, || wrought by different apostles in different countries, and for considerable periods of time. By all the apostles at Jerusalem "were many signs and wonders wrought among the people, so that there came a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks, and them which were vexed with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one. *Acts iii. 1-16. + Acts ix. 32-35. Acts ix. from v. 36 to the end. Acts v. 12-16. At Samaria, where Philip preached the gospel, *"the people with one accord gave heed to those things which he spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." At Ephesus, for a period of † two years, all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks, and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul," as also at ‡Corinth, and at §Thessalonica, cities which were at that period most distinguished and enlightened, and therefore the most unlikely to be misled by the delusions of fanaticism. On this part of my subject, the miracles of the apostles, and particularly of St. Paul, have been placed by a distinguished writer, treating on the same subject, in so clear a light, that I cannot avoid availing myself of his ideas. I allude to the celebrated Lord Lyttleton, in his short but excellent treatise on the conversion of St. Paul. "I could enter," says he, "into a particular examination of all the miracles recorded in the Acts to have been wrought by St. Paul, and shew they were not of a nature in which enthusiasm, either in him or the persons he worked them upon, or the spectators, could have any part. When he told Elymas, the sorcerer, at Paphos, before the Roman deputy, that the hand of God was upon him, and he should be blind, not seeing the sun for a season; and immediately there fell on him a mist and darkness, and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand-had enthusiasm in the doer or the sufferer any share in this act? If Paul, as an enthusiast, had thrown out this menace, and the effect had not followed; instead of converting the deputy, as we are told he did, he would have drawn on himself his rage and contempt; but the effect upon Elymas could not be caused by enthusiasm in Paul, much less can it be + Vide 1 Cor. ii 4, with the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters. § Vide 1 Thess. i. 5, 6. & v. 19, 20. and Benson's History of the first planting of Christianity, Book 3, Chap. v. s. 5. vol 2. p. 100. 2d edit. Lond. 1756. Lord Lyttleton's Observations on the conversion of St. Paul, printed in Dublin by G. Falkner. 1747, p. 59.-Lord Lyttleton has treated the fact of St. Paul's own conversion fully, and has proved so clearly, it could not be accounted for, on the supposition, either of fraud or fanaticism, that I have not dwelt on this fact in particular; I only quote such of his arguments as illustrate the general nature of the evidence, which the miracles of the apostles supplied. Vide Lyttleton's Conversion of St. Paul, p. 55. Acts xiii. 11. |