(2.) The rejection of the Gospel by the unbelieving Gentiles, who were contemporaries with Christ and his apostles, is no objection to the truth of Christianity. Many of the arguments which have been stated in the preceding pages, with reference to the infidelity of the Jews, may be applied with respect to the Gentile nations, who had many prejudices in common with the Jews, and some that were peculiar to themselves. The causes of unbelief, which were common to them with the Jews, were, a great corruption of manners; the prejudice of education, which led the Gentiles to despise Christianity previously to examination; the purity of the precepts of the Gospel, which were entirely opposite to their vicious inclinations and practices: the temporal inconveniences which attended the profession of Christianity, and the temporal advantages which might be secured or obtained by rejecting or opposing it; the mean appearance which Christ had made in the world, and his ignominious death, which they knew not how to reconcile with the divine power ascribed to him by his disciples. All these things produced in the greater part of the Jews an aversion for the Gospel, and they had the same effect on the unconverted Gentiles. But besides these causes of unbelief, the Gentiles had many others peculiar to themselves. They entertained a high notion of the efficacy of magic, of the strength of charms and incantations, and of the almost uncontrollable power of their demons and demigods; and this notion led the greater part of them to reject the Christian miracles. They were, moreover, extremely careless and indifferent about all religion of Mr. Franks's excellent "Hulsean Lectures for 1821, on the Evidences of Christianity, as they were stated and enforced in the discourses of our Lord: comprising a connected view of the claims which Jesus advanced, of the arguments by which he supported them, and of his statements respecting the causes, progress, and consequences of infidelity." Cambridge, 1821. 8vo. The state of religion, among the Greeks and Romans, had a tendency to induce this disposition. Christianity had nothing in it to attract their notice: it mixed with no politics; it produced no fine writers; the nature, office, and ministry of Jesus would be alien to their conceptions. Its connection with Judaism would injure it with the learned heathen, who regarded Jehovah himself as the idol of the Jewish nation, and this would preclude all inquiry among men of education, which accounts also for their silence on the subject. In this manner Christianity was treated by Tacitus and by Pliny the elder. Without inquiry Ta citus disposes of the whole question (see p. 202. supra,) by calling it a pestilent superstition, -a proof how little he knew or concerned himself about the matter. Let the reader peruse the instructions of Paul to the Roman converts (Rom. xii. 9.xiii. 13.) and then judge of this pestilent superstition: or, let him take Pliny's description of the conduct and principles of the Christians (see pp. 205, 206. supra), and then call Christianity a pestilent superstition. On the words of Tacitus, Dr. Paley founds these observations: 1. The learned men of that age beheld Christianity in a distant and obscure view; -2. But little reliance can be placed on the most acute judgments, in subjects which they are pleased to despise. If Christianity had not survived to tell its own story, it must have gone down to posterity as a pestilent or pernicious superstition: -3. This contempt, prior to examination, is an intellectual vice, from which the greatest faculties of the mind are not free; and, 4. We need not be surprised that many writers of that age did not mention Christianity, when those who did appear to have misconceived its nature and character. See Paley's Evidences, vol. ii. pp. 307–320. where the preceding hints are illustrated at length. in general; consequently they had only very imperfect notions of the Divine Being, and of the spiritual adoration which was due to Him alone; and they were offended at the unsociableness of Christianity, and its utter incompatibility with the established worship of their several countries. Further, the great and powerful men among the Gentiles, for want of attending to the intrinsic merits of the new doctrine, and of understanding it thoroughly, were not able to reconcile it with their particular views and interests; much less was it to be expected that the priests, artificers, and artisans, who lived by the profits of idolatry, would readily open their eyes and ears to receive a faith so utterly subversive of their present gain. Nor would the bad opinion, which other nations in general had conceived of the Jews, permit them easily to pass a favourable judgment upon the Christians, between whom and the Jews they did not, for a considerable time, make a sufficient distinction; accounting Christianity to be only a particular sort of Judaism, and calling the Christians atheists, because they taught that the gods of the nations were either nothing at all, or dead men or demons, and because they worshipped a spiritual Deity in a spiritual manner, and had neither temples nor altars. Afterwards, when the Gospel began to spread, and false teachers and vicious professors infested the church (as Christ had foretold), the Gentiles would not distinguish between the factious heretics (who wished to make themselves heads of parties) and the true disciples of Christ; and, as the antient Christians frequently complained, they laid the crimes of these false and immoral brethren to the charge of Christianity, nor could the singular innocence and piety of the Christians secure them from malicious and false accusations. Lastly, the antiquity of paganism, and the many distinguished blessings which (it was imagined) the propitious influence of their heroes and gods had from time to time conferred upon their several countries, together with the simple and artless manner in which the apostles and first Christians, and their followers, propagated a religion that had nothing in its external appearance to recommend it, concurred, in addition to the causes already stated, to lessen the force of the miracles wrought by Jesus Christ and his apostles; and prevented no small numbers of the rich, the great, and the learned, from giving in their names among the earliest converts to the faith and obedience which is in Jesus Christ. "Such were the prejudices of the Jews and Gentiles, which made so many of them unwilling and unfit to receive the Christian religion. But there is reason to think that the num→ ber of unbelievers, among those to whom the Gospel was first preached, was not altogether so great as is commonly imagined. Besides those who professed Christianity, and those who rejected and opposed it, there were in all probability multitudes between both, neither perfect Christians, nor yet unbelievers; they had a favourable opinion of the gospel, but worldly considerations made them unwilling to own it. There were many circumstances which inclined them to think that Christianity was a divine revelation, but there were many incon veniences which attended the open profession of it; and they could not find in themselves courage enough to bear them; to disoblige their friends and family, to ruin their fortunes, to lose their reputation, their liberty, and their life, for the sake of this new religion. Therefore they were willing to hope that if they endeavoured to observe the precepts of morality, which Christ had represented as the principal part, the sum and substance of religion, if they thought honourably of the Gospel, if they never spake against it, if they offered no injury to the Christians, if they did them all the services that they could safely perform, they were willing to hope that God would accept this, and that he would excuse and forgive the rest. The account which we have of those times is very short, but enough is said in the New Testament to show that this supposition is not groundless, and that many thought and acted in this manner; for we are there told that several believed in Christ, but durst not own it, some because they loved the praise of men, others because they feared the Jews, because they would not be put out of the synagogue, others because they would not part with their possessions. Joseph of Arimathea is said to have been secretly his disciple; Nicodemus seems to have had the same disposition; and afterwards Gamaliel, and other Pharisees who opposed the persecution and the punishment of the apostles, were probably not a little inclined to Christianity. Thus it was then, and thus it hath been ever since. Truth has had concealed and timorous friends, who keeping their sentiments to themselves, or disclosing them only to a few, complied with established errors and superstitions, which they disliked and despised. They who were at all acquainted with history know that a great number of such examples might be produced. "The opposition which the Gospel experienced from the Jews and Gentiles arose principally from their vices. To this cause the Scriptures ascribe their unbelief, and observe that truth is hidden from those who love darkness rather than light, whose deeds are evil, who hate to be reformed, whose minds are carnal and cannot be subject to the law of God, and who have pleasure in unrighteousness. Of such persons it is said, that none of them shall understand."2 (3.) A third objection to the prophecies that announce the universality of the Christian religion, is founded on the fact, that a considerable part of mankind, both in Europe and Asia, now embrace Mo 1 Erasmus, Epist. 583. says, Quid ego potuissem opitulari Luthero, si me periculi comitem fecissem, nisi ut pro uno perirent duo? — Multa quidem præclare et docuit et monuit, atque utinam sua bona malis intolerabilibus non vitiasset! Quod si omnia pie scripsissit, non tamen erat animus ob veritatem capite periclitari Non omnes ad martyrium satis habent roboris. Vereor, ne, si quid inciderit tumultûs, Petrum sim imitaturus. Father Paul, being asked by a friend how he could hold communion with the church of Rome, replied, Deus non dedit mihi spiritum Lutheri. See Burnet's Life of Bedell, p. 16. and Bayle's Dict. art. Weidnerus. 2 Jortin's Discourses on the Christian Religion, disc. i. pp. 91-94. In the preceding part of that discourse, the learned author has discussed, at length, the causes of the rejection of Christianity by the Gentiles, which we have necessarily treated with brevity. hammedism, and receive the Koran of Mohammed as an inspired book; which they would not do if Christianity were really from God. Answer. We conceive that the prophecies are fulfilled when all parts of the world shall have had the offer of Christianity; but by no means that it shall be upheld among them by a miracle. This is contrary to the whole analogy of nature. God gives increase to the tree, but does not prevent its decay. He gives increase to a man, but does not prevent his growing infirm. Thus religion, when planted in a country, is left to the natural course of things; and if that country grows supine, and does not cherish the blessing, it must take on itself the consequence. We conceive therefore, that, with regard to all those countries which receive the Koran, where the Gospel once flourished, the prophecy has already been fulfilled. Indeed, their present state is an accomplishment of prophecy, inasmuch as it was foretold that such a falling away should take place. Not to enter into too minute details, it may be remarked that the seven churches of Asia lie to this very day, in the same forlorn and desolate condition which the angel had signified to the apostle John (Rev. ii. iii.); their candlestick is removed out of its place, their churches are turned into mosques, and their worship into the grossest superstition. The prevalence of infidel principles on the continent is notorious and equally notorious are the attempts making to disseminate them in this highly favoured country. Yet all these countries have had the Gospel, and if they should hereafter expel it, as the French did a few years since, it will be their own fault. The prophecy has been fulfilled. : The opposers of revelation have not failed to contrast the rapid progress of Mohammedism with the propagation of Christianity; and have urged it as an argument, to show that there was nothing miraculous in the extension of the religion of Jesus. But, in making this assertion, they have either not known, or have designedly suppressed the connections and means of assistance that favoured Mohammed, and which leave nothing wonderful in the success of his doctrine; which is satisfactorily accounted for by the religious, political, and civil state of the east at the time the pseudo-prophet of Arabia announced his pretensions, and by the nature of his doctrine as well as by the means to which he had recourse for its propagation. Mohammed came into the world exactly at the time suited to his purposes, when its political and civil state was most favourable to a new conqueror. In Arabia Felix, religion was at that time in a most deplorable state. Its inhabitants were divided into four religious parties, some of whom were attached to the idolatrous worship of the Sabians, who adored the stars as divinities; while others followed the idolatry of the Magi, who worshipped fire. The Jewish religion had a great many followers, who treated the others with much cruelty; and the Christians who were at that time resident there, formed principally an assemblage of different sects, who had taken refuge among this free people because they were not tolerated in the Roman empire. Among the Christian sects in the eastern part of the empire, bitter dissensions and cruel animosities prevailed, which filled great part of the east with carnage, assassinations, and such detestable enormities as rendered the very name of Christianity odious to many. The pure doctrines and holy precepts of the Gospel had been degraded into superstitious idolatry; and the decay of morality, in every class, had kept equal pace with that of piety. Under such a distracted state of religion, it would have been highly wonderful if, in a short time, Mohammed had not procured a numerous train of followers. The Christian religion, on the contrary, received its origin in a country where the only true God was worshipped, and the Mosaic ceremonial law (which it abrogated) universally revered. If the corruptions and distresses of Christianity were thus signally favourable to the aspiring views of Mohammed, the political state of the world at that time contributed not less remarkably to the success of the impostor. While the once formidable empires, of Rome on the one hand, overwhelmed by the fierce incursions of the northern barbarians, and of Persia on the other, distracted by its own intestine divisions, were evidently in the last stage of decay, Arabia was in every respect prosperous and flourishing. Naturally populous in itself, it had received a very considerable accession of inhabitants from the Grecian empire; whence religious intolerance had driven great numbers of Jews and Christians to seek an asylum in a country, where they might enjoy their opinions without interruption, and profess them without danger. The Arabians were a free but illiterate people, not devoted like other nations to the extravagances of sensual pleasures, but temperate and hardy, and therefore properly qualified for new conquests. This brave people were at that time divided into separate tribes, each independent on the other, and consequently connected by no political union :- —a circumstance that greatly facilitated the conquests of Mohammed. The pseudo-prophet himself was descended from a family of much power and consequence; and by a fortunate marriage with an opulent widow was raised, from indigent circumstances, to be one of the richest men in Mecca. He was, moreover, endowed with fine and politic talents; and from the various journies which he made in prosecuting his mercantile concerns, had acquired a perfect acquaintance with the constitution of the country. These, added to his high descent and family connections, could not fail of attracting attention and followers to the character of a religious teacher, in an age of ignorance and barbarism. No such advantages of rank, wealth, or powerful connections were possessed by Jesus Christ. Of humble descent, bred up in poverty, he continued in that state all his life, having frequently no place where he could lay his head. A man so circumstanced was not likely, by his own personal influence, to force a new religion, much less a false one, upon the world. In forming a new religion, Mohammed studied to adapt it to the notions of the four religions that prevailed in Arabia; making its ritual less burthensome, and its morality more indulgent. From the idola |