Chapter 14

[160]Chap. vii.[161]P.172.[162][Papists urge that the actual conversion of the bread and wine in the Eucharist is an invisible miracle. But an invisible miracle is such because wrought under circumstances whichexcludeexamination: while transubstantiationinvitesandfacilitatesexamination. It is wrought publicly, and constantly, and yet cannot be discovered to be a miracle. Indeed it supposes the working of a second miracle, to make the first invisible.][163][Paley shows conclusively that a denial of miracles leads not only to a denial of revelation, but a denial of the existence of God, all of whose extraordinary acts are necessarily miraculous.][164][Whately, in hisLogic, b. iii., has shown the folly of the Deistical attempts to explain our Savior’s miracles as mere natural events. Having labored to show this of someoneof the miracles, they then do so as toanother, and thence infer thatallwere accidental conjunctures of natural circumstances. He says, they might as well argue “that because it is not improbable one may throw sixes once in a hundred throws, therefore it is no more improbable that one may throw sixes a hundred times running.”Fitzgeraldsays, “the improbability of a whole series of strange natural events, taking place unaccountably, one after another, amounts to a far greater improbability than is involved in the admission of miracles.”][165][That man, at first, must have had supernaturalinstructions, or in other words some revelations, is shown by ArchbishopWhatelyin his “Origin of Civilization.” Rev.Samuel Stanhope Smithexpresses his conviction, both from reason and history, that man in his savage state could not even have preserved life without instruction from his Creator.][166][The maintenance by the Jews, of a system of pure Theism, through so many and so rude ages, without being superior, or even equal to their neighbors, in science and civilization, can only be accounted for on the presumption of a revelation.][167]P.166, &c.[168][Mills(Logic, chap. 24, § 5,) points out what he deems a mistake of “some of the writers against Hume on Miracles,” in confounding the improbability of an event, before its occurrence, with the improbability afterwards; that is, considering them equal in degree. He fully proves that the great Laplace fell into this error, and the student should consult the passage.Prof.Fitzgeraldholds Butler to have fallen into the mistake adverted to by Mills; and quotes the latter author in a way which seems to make him say that such is his opinion also. I do not so understand Mills, nor do I see that Butler has confounded these meanings; but the very contrary. He expressly affirms, and most truly, that the strongest presumption may lie against “the most ordinary factsbefore the proofwhich yet is overcome by almost any proof.” Butler’s position here, may be thus illustrated. Suppose a hundred numbers to be put in a box, and it is proposed to draw out the number 42. Now there are 99 chances to 1 against drawing that, or any othergivennumber. But suppose a child tells you he put the hundred numbers into a box, and drew out one, and it proved to be 42; you at once believe, for that was as likely to come as any other.The proof of Christianity from prophecy becomes amazingly strong, thus viewed. There are many predictions, for instance that Christ should be born at a certain time, and place, and under certain very particular circumstances. The probabilities against such aconjunctureof events are almost infinite; yet they happened exactly as foretold.][169][For instance, a mass of ice or snow, may imperceptibly accumulate for an age, and then suddenly fall and overwhelm a village. Or a planet, or comet, may have been gradually nearing our earth for a million of years, without producing,as yet, any effect on our orbit; but in process of time, its proximity may work great changes in our condition.][170]P.208.[171]1 Cor. i. 28.[172]SeeChap. vi.[173]SeeChap. vi.[174][See note,page 218.][175]P.220.[176][It is not to be understood that Butler would not have the ordinary rules of interpretation applied to the Holy Scriptures. Because the interpretation, “if not gatheredoutof the words, must be broughtintothem.” We cannot interpret them as if we knew beforehand, what the Holy Ghost meant to say; asSpinozaproposes to do, in his Philosophia Scripturæ Interpretes. The student will do well to consultBenson’sHulsean Lectures on Scripture Difficulties:King’sMorsels of Criticism:Storr, Exertationes Exeget.:Michaelis, Introd. ad. Nov. Test.: andFeatley’sKey.][177]Pp.207,208.[178][See 1 Cor. xii. 1-10: xiii. 1: and xiv. 1-19.][179][“The power of healing, or working miracles, is, during the whole course of its operation, one continued arrest or diversion of the general laws of matter and motion. It was therefore fit that this power should be given occasionally. But thespeaking with tongues, when once the gift was conferred, became thenceforth a natural power; just as the free use of members of the body, after being restored, by miracle, to the exercise of their natural functions. In healing, the apostles are to be considered as the workers of a miracle; in speaking strange tongues, as persons on whom a miracle is performed.”—Warburton, Doct. of Grace, b. i. ch. iii.][180]Heb. vi. 1.[181]Acts iii. 21.[182][The doctrine of “development” has of late been popular in some quarters. Butler here shows the onlysafenotion we may entertain on that subject. “Exact thought, and careful consideration” may show us how to confute specious heresies, expound embarrassing passages, dissipate painful doubts, and remove many prejudices or misapprehensions. But revelation is complete as it stands.We may hope for progress in theology as in other sciences; not in the development of new facts or faith, as Papists and Socinians pretend, but in the increase of sound wisdom, aided by a more perfect interpretation of God’s word.][183]Chap. vi.[184]Chap. v.[185]Chap. vii.[186]Chap. iv.latter part, andv.vi.[187][This pregnant paragraph should receive very full attention. We know much of men, little of God. What men are likely to do, or say, in certain circumstances, is often very clear; and generally may be guessed at. But what God would do or say in new contingencies, who shall attempt to prescribe or predict? We are poorly qualified to assert that such and such declarations could not have come from infinite wisdom; but we are quite competent to affirm that such and such things could not have come from human contrivance or enthusiasm.][188]In theforegoing chapter.[189]Part I, ch. vii., to which this all along refers.[190][“It is the last step of reason to know there is an infinity of things which surpass it.”—Pascal.“The wall of adamant which bounds human inquiry, has scarcely ever been discovered by any adventurer, till he was aroused by the shock that drove him back.”—SirJas. Mackintosh. “Of the dark parts of revelation there are two sorts: one which may be cleared up by the studious; the other which will always reside within the shadow of God’s throne where it would be impiety to intrude.”—Warburton.“A Christianity without mystery is as unphilosophical as it is unscriptural.”—Angus.][191]John xi. 52.[192]2 Peter iii. 13.[193]1 Peter i. 11, 12.[194]Phil. ii. [6-11.][195][The influences of the Holy Spirit are not only “given to good men,” but are sent upon many who live unmindful of eternity, quickening their consciences, enlightening their understandings and arresting their passions, and thus it is they are converted unto the truth in Christ.][196]John xiv. 2.[197]John v. 22, 23.[198]Matt. xxviii. 18.[199]1 Cor. xv. 28.[200]1 Tim. iii. 16.[201]P.174, &c.[202]1 Cor. i. [18-25.][203]Pp.178,179.[204]Pp.180,181.[205]P.172, &c.[206][“Providence hurries not himself to display to-day the consequence of the principle he yesterday announced. He will draw it out in the lapse of ages Even according to our reasoning logic is none the less sure, because it is slow.”—Guizoton Civilization, Lect. I.How impressively is this sentiment sustained by modern geology, and astronomy!][207][“Philosophers make shameful and dangerous mistakes, when they judge of the Divine economy. He cannot, they tell us, act thus, it would be contrary to his wisdom, or his justice, &c. But while they make these peremptory assertions they show themselves to be unacquainted with the fundamental rules of their own science, and with the origin of all late improvements. True philosophy would begin the other way, with observing the constitution of the world, how God has made us, and in what circumstances he has placed us, andthenfrom what he has done, form a sure judgment what he would do. Thus might they learn ‘the invisible things of God from those which are clearly seen’ the things which are not accomplished from those which are.”—Powell’sUse and Abuse of Philosophy.][208]1 Tim. ii. 5.[209][The interposition of a man of known probity and worth often saves the thoughtless or the guilty from punishment. Mediation is seen in a thousand forms in the arrangements of social life; and the common sense of all mankind approves of it. The release of the offending, by the intercession of the good, and all the benefits of advice, caution, example, instruction, persuasion, and authority, are instances of mediation.][210][Mr. Newmannotices a distinction between the facts of revelation, and its principles; and considers the argument from analogy more concerned with its principles than with its facts. “The revealed facts are special and singular, from the nature of the case, but the revealed principles are common to all the works of God; and if the Author of nature be the author of grace, it may be expected that the principles displayed in them will be the same, and form a connecting link between them. In this identity ofprinciple, lies the analogy of natural and revealed religion, in Butler’s sense of the word. The Incarnation is a fact, and cannot be paralleled by any thing in nature: the doctrine of mediation is a principle, and is abundantly exemplified in nature.”—Essay on Developments.][211][The student will find the inadequacy of repentance to cancel guilt, beautifully exhibited byWayland, Mor. Science:Magee, Atonement:Howe, Living Temple.][212]P.232, &c.[213]John iii. 16.[214]It cannot, I suppose, be imagined, even by the most cursory reader, that it is, in any sort, affirmed or implied in any thing said in this chapter, that none can have the benefit of the general redemption, but such as have the advantage of being made acquainted with it in the present life. But it may be needful to mention, that several questions, which have been brought into the subject before us, and determined, are not in the least entered into here, questions which have been, I fear, rashly determined, and perhaps with equal rashness contrary ways. For instance, whether God could have saved the world by other means than the death of Christ, consistently with the general laws of his government. And had not Christ come into the world, what would have been the future condition of the better sort of men; those just persons over the face of the earth, for whom Manasses in his prayer[A]asserts, repentance was not appointed. The meaning of the first of these questions is greatly ambiguous: and neither of them can properly be answered, without going upon that infinitely absurd supposition, that we know the whole of the case. And perhaps the very inquiry,What would have followed, if God had not done as he has, may have in it some very great impropriety: and ought not to be carried on any further than is necessary to help our partial and inadequate conceptions of things.[A][The “prayer of Manasses” is one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which next precedes “Maccabees.”][215]John i., and viii. 12.[216]Rom. iii. 25, v. 11: 1 Cor. v. 7: Eph. v. 2: 1 John ii. 2: Matt xxvi. 28.[217]John i. 29, 36, and throughout the book of Revelation.[218]Throughout the epistle to the Hebrews.[219]Isa. liii.: Dan. ix. 24: Ps. cx. 4.[220]Heb. x. 1.[221]Heb. viii. 4, 5.[222]Heb. x. 4, 5, 7, 9, 10.[223]Heb. ix. 28.[224]John xi. 51, 52.[225]1 Pet. iii. 18.[226]Matt. xx. 28: Mark x. 45: 1 Tim. ii. 6.[227]2 Pet. ii. 1: Rev. xiv. 4: 1 Cor. vi. 20.[228]1 Pet. i. 19: Rev. v. 9: Gal. iii. 13.[229]Heb. vii. 25: 1 John ii. 1, 2.[230]Heb. ii. 10.: v. 9.[231]2 Cor. v. 19: Rom. v. 10: Eph. ii. 16.[232]Heb. ii. 14. See also a remarkable passage in the book of Job, xxxiii. 24.[233]Phil. ii. 8, 9: John iii. 35, and v. 22, 23.[234]Rev. v. 12, 13.[235]John vi. 14.[236]P.188, &c.[237]Eph. iv. 12, 13.[238]John xiv. 2, 3: Rev. iii. 21, and xi. 15.[239]2 Thess. i. 8.[240]Heb. ix. 26.[241][ConsultMagee, on Atonement:StapferiInstitutiones:Turretin, De Satisfactione:Chalmers, Discourses:Owen, Satis. of Christ.][242]P.194, &c.[243][This objection is ably urged byTindall. The answer of our author is complete. We should remember, that twice in the history of mankind, revelationhas beenuniversal. The first pair, and the occupants of the ark, comprised the whole population. But how soon was light rejected! Christianity is universal, in nature and intention; is to become so in fact; and according to a very probable construction of prophecy, will continue to be universal, for three hundred and sixty thousand years.][244][May not this be a principal object of the Apocalypse? As the book of Daniel furnished a constant and powerful support to the faith of the Jew, by the constant development of prophecy, so the Apocalypse, rightly studied must powerfully, and through all time, support the faith of the Christian by the continual unfolding and verification of its predictions.][245]2 Cor. viii. 12.[246]Introduction.[247]Part I. chap. v.[248]Part I. chap. iv.and pp.156,157.[249]Pp.156,157.[250]Dan. xii. 10. See also Isa. xxix. 13, 14: Matt. vi. 23, and xi. 25, and xiii. 11, 12: John iii. 19, and v. 44: 1 Cor. ii. 14, and 2 Cor. iv. 4: 2 Tim. iii. 13; and that affectionate as well as authoritative admonition, so very many times inculcated,He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Grotius saw so strongly the thing intended in these and other passages of Scripture of the like sense, as to say, that the proof given us of Christianity was less than it might have been, for this very purpose:Ut ita sermo Evangelii tanquam lapis esset Lydius ad quem ingenia sanabilia explorarentur. De Ver. R. C. lib. ii. [So that the Gospel should be a touchstone, to test the honesty of men’s dispositions.][251]Pp.100,257, &c.[252][SeeWitsiiMeletemeta, Diss. IV.:PfafiiDisput.:Campbellon Miracles:Douglass’Criterion:Farmer’sDissertations:Paley’sEvid.:Taylor’sApol. of Ben Mordecai:Tucker’sLight of Nat.:Watson’sTracts, vol. iv.:Jortin’sSermons: Bp.Fleetwood’sEssays:BoyleLectures:Lardner’sCredibility.][253][“The miracles of the Jewish historian, are intimately connected with all the civil affairs, and make a necessary and inseparable part. The whole history is founded in them; it consists of little else; and if it were not a history of them, it would be a history of nothing.”—Bolingbroke, Posthumous Works, vol. iii. p. 279.][254][An admirable work on this recondite mode of proving the truth of the New Testament narrative, isPaley’sHoræ Paulinæ. The same department of evidence is ably handled byBirk, in his Horæ Evangelicæ, and Horæ Apostolicæ:Graveson the Pentateuch: andBluntin his “Undesigned Coincidences both of the Old and New Testament.”Grotius, De Veritate, has some excellent passages on the same subject.][255][Clem. Rom. Ep. 1. c. 47.]Clement, who is here quoted, lived in the first century, and is mentioned Phil. iv. 3. His epistle to the Corinthians, written in Greek, contains the passage here referred to, which may be thus translated: “Take the letter of the blessed Paul the Apostle. What did he write to you, in the first beginning of the Gospel? Truly he sent you a divinely inspired letter about himself, and Cephas, and Apollos.”[256]Gal. i.: 1 Cor. xi. 23, &c.: 1 Cor. xv. 8.[257]Rom. xv. 19: 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10-28, &c., and xiii. 1, 2, 8, and the whole 14th chapter: 2 Cor. xii. 12, 13: Gal. iii. 2, 5.[258]See the Koran, chap. xiii. and chap. xvii.[259][Mahometexpressly declares that he worked nopublicmiracles in confirmation of his mission, “because the former nations have charged them with imposture.” He claims, however, to have had private miraculous assurances of his mission, and most preposterous they were.Whately, in his Christian Evidences, has handled this aspect of miracles with great ability. See alsoPaley’sEvidences, sec. 3: andGibbon’sDecline and Fall, chap. 1.][260][Alexander, in his Evidences, and several other writers have placed this argument in a very convincing light.Arnobius, one of the earliest Christian writers, asks, “Shall we say that the men of those times were inconsiderate, deceitful, stupid, and brutish enough to feign having seen what they never saw? and that when they might have lived in peace and comfort, they chose gratuitous hatred and obloquy?”Therejectionof Christianity by so many in the first age was the result of the continued action of personal and hereditary prejudice and depravity, capable of resisting any supposable evidence. Thereceptionof Christianity by multitudes, under the same evidences, and to their immediate personal damage, shows strongly that there was enough evidence to produce those effects. Thus the rejection by some does not countervail the acceptance by others.][261]P.294, &c.[262][CompareButler’sSermons; on Balaam, and on Self-deceit.][263]See the foregoing chapter.[264][“Whenever a general scheme is known to be pursued by a writer, that scheme becomes the true key in the hands of his reader, for unlocking the meaning of particular parts, which would otherwise not be seen clearly to refer to such scheme. The inspired writers had one common and predominant scheme in view, which was tobear testimony to Jesus. Whatever passages occur in their writings, which bear an apt and easy resemblance to the history of Jesus, may, or rather must in all reasonable construction, be applied to him.”—Hurdon the Proph., p. 117.][265][Consult on this point,Gulick, Theologia Prophetica:Vitringa, Observationes:Hengstenburg, Christologia:Horsley’sTracts and Sermons:King’sMorsels of Criticism:Waugh’sDissertations:Lyall’sPropœdia Prophetica.][266]It appears that Porphyry did nothing worth mentioning in this way. For Jerome on the place says:Duas posteriores bestias—in uno Macedonum regno ponit. And as to the ten kings;Decem reges enumerat, qui fuerunt sævissimi: ipsosque reges non unius ponit regni, verbi gratia, Macedoniæ, Syriæ, Asiæ, et Ægypti; sed de diversis regnis unum efficit regum ordinem. [“The two latter beasts he places in one of the Macedonian kingdoms.” “He reckons up ten kings who had been excessively cruel and these not kings of one country, as Macedonia, for instance, or Syria, or Asia, or Egypt; but makes up his set of kings out of different kingdoms.”] In this way of interpretation, any thing may be made of any thing.

[160]Chap. vii.

[161]P.172.

[162][Papists urge that the actual conversion of the bread and wine in the Eucharist is an invisible miracle. But an invisible miracle is such because wrought under circumstances whichexcludeexamination: while transubstantiationinvitesandfacilitatesexamination. It is wrought publicly, and constantly, and yet cannot be discovered to be a miracle. Indeed it supposes the working of a second miracle, to make the first invisible.]

[163][Paley shows conclusively that a denial of miracles leads not only to a denial of revelation, but a denial of the existence of God, all of whose extraordinary acts are necessarily miraculous.]

[164][Whately, in hisLogic, b. iii., has shown the folly of the Deistical attempts to explain our Savior’s miracles as mere natural events. Having labored to show this of someoneof the miracles, they then do so as toanother, and thence infer thatallwere accidental conjunctures of natural circumstances. He says, they might as well argue “that because it is not improbable one may throw sixes once in a hundred throws, therefore it is no more improbable that one may throw sixes a hundred times running.”Fitzgeraldsays, “the improbability of a whole series of strange natural events, taking place unaccountably, one after another, amounts to a far greater improbability than is involved in the admission of miracles.”]

[165][That man, at first, must have had supernaturalinstructions, or in other words some revelations, is shown by ArchbishopWhatelyin his “Origin of Civilization.” Rev.Samuel Stanhope Smithexpresses his conviction, both from reason and history, that man in his savage state could not even have preserved life without instruction from his Creator.]

[166][The maintenance by the Jews, of a system of pure Theism, through so many and so rude ages, without being superior, or even equal to their neighbors, in science and civilization, can only be accounted for on the presumption of a revelation.]

[167]P.166, &c.

[168][Mills(Logic, chap. 24, § 5,) points out what he deems a mistake of “some of the writers against Hume on Miracles,” in confounding the improbability of an event, before its occurrence, with the improbability afterwards; that is, considering them equal in degree. He fully proves that the great Laplace fell into this error, and the student should consult the passage.Prof.Fitzgeraldholds Butler to have fallen into the mistake adverted to by Mills; and quotes the latter author in a way which seems to make him say that such is his opinion also. I do not so understand Mills, nor do I see that Butler has confounded these meanings; but the very contrary. He expressly affirms, and most truly, that the strongest presumption may lie against “the most ordinary factsbefore the proofwhich yet is overcome by almost any proof.” Butler’s position here, may be thus illustrated. Suppose a hundred numbers to be put in a box, and it is proposed to draw out the number 42. Now there are 99 chances to 1 against drawing that, or any othergivennumber. But suppose a child tells you he put the hundred numbers into a box, and drew out one, and it proved to be 42; you at once believe, for that was as likely to come as any other.The proof of Christianity from prophecy becomes amazingly strong, thus viewed. There are many predictions, for instance that Christ should be born at a certain time, and place, and under certain very particular circumstances. The probabilities against such aconjunctureof events are almost infinite; yet they happened exactly as foretold.]

[169][For instance, a mass of ice or snow, may imperceptibly accumulate for an age, and then suddenly fall and overwhelm a village. Or a planet, or comet, may have been gradually nearing our earth for a million of years, without producing,as yet, any effect on our orbit; but in process of time, its proximity may work great changes in our condition.]

[170]P.208.

[171]1 Cor. i. 28.

[172]SeeChap. vi.

[173]SeeChap. vi.

[174][See note,page 218.]

[175]P.220.

[176][It is not to be understood that Butler would not have the ordinary rules of interpretation applied to the Holy Scriptures. Because the interpretation, “if not gatheredoutof the words, must be broughtintothem.” We cannot interpret them as if we knew beforehand, what the Holy Ghost meant to say; asSpinozaproposes to do, in his Philosophia Scripturæ Interpretes. The student will do well to consultBenson’sHulsean Lectures on Scripture Difficulties:King’sMorsels of Criticism:Storr, Exertationes Exeget.:Michaelis, Introd. ad. Nov. Test.: andFeatley’sKey.]

[177]Pp.207,208.

[178][See 1 Cor. xii. 1-10: xiii. 1: and xiv. 1-19.]

[179][“The power of healing, or working miracles, is, during the whole course of its operation, one continued arrest or diversion of the general laws of matter and motion. It was therefore fit that this power should be given occasionally. But thespeaking with tongues, when once the gift was conferred, became thenceforth a natural power; just as the free use of members of the body, after being restored, by miracle, to the exercise of their natural functions. In healing, the apostles are to be considered as the workers of a miracle; in speaking strange tongues, as persons on whom a miracle is performed.”—Warburton, Doct. of Grace, b. i. ch. iii.]

[180]Heb. vi. 1.

[181]Acts iii. 21.

[182][The doctrine of “development” has of late been popular in some quarters. Butler here shows the onlysafenotion we may entertain on that subject. “Exact thought, and careful consideration” may show us how to confute specious heresies, expound embarrassing passages, dissipate painful doubts, and remove many prejudices or misapprehensions. But revelation is complete as it stands.We may hope for progress in theology as in other sciences; not in the development of new facts or faith, as Papists and Socinians pretend, but in the increase of sound wisdom, aided by a more perfect interpretation of God’s word.]

[183]Chap. vi.

[184]Chap. v.

[185]Chap. vii.

[186]Chap. iv.latter part, andv.vi.

[187][This pregnant paragraph should receive very full attention. We know much of men, little of God. What men are likely to do, or say, in certain circumstances, is often very clear; and generally may be guessed at. But what God would do or say in new contingencies, who shall attempt to prescribe or predict? We are poorly qualified to assert that such and such declarations could not have come from infinite wisdom; but we are quite competent to affirm that such and such things could not have come from human contrivance or enthusiasm.]

[188]In theforegoing chapter.

[189]Part I, ch. vii., to which this all along refers.

[190][“It is the last step of reason to know there is an infinity of things which surpass it.”—Pascal.“The wall of adamant which bounds human inquiry, has scarcely ever been discovered by any adventurer, till he was aroused by the shock that drove him back.”—SirJas. Mackintosh. “Of the dark parts of revelation there are two sorts: one which may be cleared up by the studious; the other which will always reside within the shadow of God’s throne where it would be impiety to intrude.”—Warburton.“A Christianity without mystery is as unphilosophical as it is unscriptural.”—Angus.]

[191]John xi. 52.

[192]2 Peter iii. 13.

[193]1 Peter i. 11, 12.

[194]Phil. ii. [6-11.]

[195][The influences of the Holy Spirit are not only “given to good men,” but are sent upon many who live unmindful of eternity, quickening their consciences, enlightening their understandings and arresting their passions, and thus it is they are converted unto the truth in Christ.]

[196]John xiv. 2.

[197]John v. 22, 23.

[198]Matt. xxviii. 18.

[199]1 Cor. xv. 28.

[200]1 Tim. iii. 16.

[201]P.174, &c.

[202]1 Cor. i. [18-25.]

[203]Pp.178,179.

[204]Pp.180,181.

[205]P.172, &c.

[206][“Providence hurries not himself to display to-day the consequence of the principle he yesterday announced. He will draw it out in the lapse of ages Even according to our reasoning logic is none the less sure, because it is slow.”—Guizoton Civilization, Lect. I.How impressively is this sentiment sustained by modern geology, and astronomy!]

[207][“Philosophers make shameful and dangerous mistakes, when they judge of the Divine economy. He cannot, they tell us, act thus, it would be contrary to his wisdom, or his justice, &c. But while they make these peremptory assertions they show themselves to be unacquainted with the fundamental rules of their own science, and with the origin of all late improvements. True philosophy would begin the other way, with observing the constitution of the world, how God has made us, and in what circumstances he has placed us, andthenfrom what he has done, form a sure judgment what he would do. Thus might they learn ‘the invisible things of God from those which are clearly seen’ the things which are not accomplished from those which are.”—Powell’sUse and Abuse of Philosophy.]

[208]1 Tim. ii. 5.

[209][The interposition of a man of known probity and worth often saves the thoughtless or the guilty from punishment. Mediation is seen in a thousand forms in the arrangements of social life; and the common sense of all mankind approves of it. The release of the offending, by the intercession of the good, and all the benefits of advice, caution, example, instruction, persuasion, and authority, are instances of mediation.]

[210][Mr. Newmannotices a distinction between the facts of revelation, and its principles; and considers the argument from analogy more concerned with its principles than with its facts. “The revealed facts are special and singular, from the nature of the case, but the revealed principles are common to all the works of God; and if the Author of nature be the author of grace, it may be expected that the principles displayed in them will be the same, and form a connecting link between them. In this identity ofprinciple, lies the analogy of natural and revealed religion, in Butler’s sense of the word. The Incarnation is a fact, and cannot be paralleled by any thing in nature: the doctrine of mediation is a principle, and is abundantly exemplified in nature.”—Essay on Developments.]

[211][The student will find the inadequacy of repentance to cancel guilt, beautifully exhibited byWayland, Mor. Science:Magee, Atonement:Howe, Living Temple.]

[212]P.232, &c.

[213]John iii. 16.

[214]It cannot, I suppose, be imagined, even by the most cursory reader, that it is, in any sort, affirmed or implied in any thing said in this chapter, that none can have the benefit of the general redemption, but such as have the advantage of being made acquainted with it in the present life. But it may be needful to mention, that several questions, which have been brought into the subject before us, and determined, are not in the least entered into here, questions which have been, I fear, rashly determined, and perhaps with equal rashness contrary ways. For instance, whether God could have saved the world by other means than the death of Christ, consistently with the general laws of his government. And had not Christ come into the world, what would have been the future condition of the better sort of men; those just persons over the face of the earth, for whom Manasses in his prayer[A]asserts, repentance was not appointed. The meaning of the first of these questions is greatly ambiguous: and neither of them can properly be answered, without going upon that infinitely absurd supposition, that we know the whole of the case. And perhaps the very inquiry,What would have followed, if God had not done as he has, may have in it some very great impropriety: and ought not to be carried on any further than is necessary to help our partial and inadequate conceptions of things.[A][The “prayer of Manasses” is one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which next precedes “Maccabees.”]

[A][The “prayer of Manasses” is one of the apocryphal books of the Old Testament, which next precedes “Maccabees.”]

[215]John i., and viii. 12.

[216]Rom. iii. 25, v. 11: 1 Cor. v. 7: Eph. v. 2: 1 John ii. 2: Matt xxvi. 28.

[217]John i. 29, 36, and throughout the book of Revelation.

[218]Throughout the epistle to the Hebrews.

[219]Isa. liii.: Dan. ix. 24: Ps. cx. 4.

[220]Heb. x. 1.

[221]Heb. viii. 4, 5.

[222]Heb. x. 4, 5, 7, 9, 10.

[223]Heb. ix. 28.

[224]John xi. 51, 52.

[225]1 Pet. iii. 18.

[226]Matt. xx. 28: Mark x. 45: 1 Tim. ii. 6.

[227]2 Pet. ii. 1: Rev. xiv. 4: 1 Cor. vi. 20.

[228]1 Pet. i. 19: Rev. v. 9: Gal. iii. 13.

[229]Heb. vii. 25: 1 John ii. 1, 2.

[230]Heb. ii. 10.: v. 9.

[231]2 Cor. v. 19: Rom. v. 10: Eph. ii. 16.

[232]Heb. ii. 14. See also a remarkable passage in the book of Job, xxxiii. 24.

[233]Phil. ii. 8, 9: John iii. 35, and v. 22, 23.

[234]Rev. v. 12, 13.

[235]John vi. 14.

[236]P.188, &c.

[237]Eph. iv. 12, 13.

[238]John xiv. 2, 3: Rev. iii. 21, and xi. 15.

[239]2 Thess. i. 8.

[240]Heb. ix. 26.

[241][ConsultMagee, on Atonement:StapferiInstitutiones:Turretin, De Satisfactione:Chalmers, Discourses:Owen, Satis. of Christ.]

[242]P.194, &c.

[243][This objection is ably urged byTindall. The answer of our author is complete. We should remember, that twice in the history of mankind, revelationhas beenuniversal. The first pair, and the occupants of the ark, comprised the whole population. But how soon was light rejected! Christianity is universal, in nature and intention; is to become so in fact; and according to a very probable construction of prophecy, will continue to be universal, for three hundred and sixty thousand years.]

[244][May not this be a principal object of the Apocalypse? As the book of Daniel furnished a constant and powerful support to the faith of the Jew, by the constant development of prophecy, so the Apocalypse, rightly studied must powerfully, and through all time, support the faith of the Christian by the continual unfolding and verification of its predictions.]

[245]2 Cor. viii. 12.

[246]Introduction.

[247]Part I. chap. v.

[248]Part I. chap. iv.and pp.156,157.

[249]Pp.156,157.

[250]Dan. xii. 10. See also Isa. xxix. 13, 14: Matt. vi. 23, and xi. 25, and xiii. 11, 12: John iii. 19, and v. 44: 1 Cor. ii. 14, and 2 Cor. iv. 4: 2 Tim. iii. 13; and that affectionate as well as authoritative admonition, so very many times inculcated,He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Grotius saw so strongly the thing intended in these and other passages of Scripture of the like sense, as to say, that the proof given us of Christianity was less than it might have been, for this very purpose:Ut ita sermo Evangelii tanquam lapis esset Lydius ad quem ingenia sanabilia explorarentur. De Ver. R. C. lib. ii. [So that the Gospel should be a touchstone, to test the honesty of men’s dispositions.]

[251]Pp.100,257, &c.

[252][SeeWitsiiMeletemeta, Diss. IV.:PfafiiDisput.:Campbellon Miracles:Douglass’Criterion:Farmer’sDissertations:Paley’sEvid.:Taylor’sApol. of Ben Mordecai:Tucker’sLight of Nat.:Watson’sTracts, vol. iv.:Jortin’sSermons: Bp.Fleetwood’sEssays:BoyleLectures:Lardner’sCredibility.]

[253][“The miracles of the Jewish historian, are intimately connected with all the civil affairs, and make a necessary and inseparable part. The whole history is founded in them; it consists of little else; and if it were not a history of them, it would be a history of nothing.”—Bolingbroke, Posthumous Works, vol. iii. p. 279.]

[254][An admirable work on this recondite mode of proving the truth of the New Testament narrative, isPaley’sHoræ Paulinæ. The same department of evidence is ably handled byBirk, in his Horæ Evangelicæ, and Horæ Apostolicæ:Graveson the Pentateuch: andBluntin his “Undesigned Coincidences both of the Old and New Testament.”Grotius, De Veritate, has some excellent passages on the same subject.]

[255][Clem. Rom. Ep. 1. c. 47.]Clement, who is here quoted, lived in the first century, and is mentioned Phil. iv. 3. His epistle to the Corinthians, written in Greek, contains the passage here referred to, which may be thus translated: “Take the letter of the blessed Paul the Apostle. What did he write to you, in the first beginning of the Gospel? Truly he sent you a divinely inspired letter about himself, and Cephas, and Apollos.”

[256]Gal. i.: 1 Cor. xi. 23, &c.: 1 Cor. xv. 8.

[257]Rom. xv. 19: 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, 10-28, &c., and xiii. 1, 2, 8, and the whole 14th chapter: 2 Cor. xii. 12, 13: Gal. iii. 2, 5.

[258]See the Koran, chap. xiii. and chap. xvii.

[259][Mahometexpressly declares that he worked nopublicmiracles in confirmation of his mission, “because the former nations have charged them with imposture.” He claims, however, to have had private miraculous assurances of his mission, and most preposterous they were.Whately, in his Christian Evidences, has handled this aspect of miracles with great ability. See alsoPaley’sEvidences, sec. 3: andGibbon’sDecline and Fall, chap. 1.]

[260][Alexander, in his Evidences, and several other writers have placed this argument in a very convincing light.Arnobius, one of the earliest Christian writers, asks, “Shall we say that the men of those times were inconsiderate, deceitful, stupid, and brutish enough to feign having seen what they never saw? and that when they might have lived in peace and comfort, they chose gratuitous hatred and obloquy?”Therejectionof Christianity by so many in the first age was the result of the continued action of personal and hereditary prejudice and depravity, capable of resisting any supposable evidence. Thereceptionof Christianity by multitudes, under the same evidences, and to their immediate personal damage, shows strongly that there was enough evidence to produce those effects. Thus the rejection by some does not countervail the acceptance by others.]

[261]P.294, &c.

[262][CompareButler’sSermons; on Balaam, and on Self-deceit.]

[263]See the foregoing chapter.

[264][“Whenever a general scheme is known to be pursued by a writer, that scheme becomes the true key in the hands of his reader, for unlocking the meaning of particular parts, which would otherwise not be seen clearly to refer to such scheme. The inspired writers had one common and predominant scheme in view, which was tobear testimony to Jesus. Whatever passages occur in their writings, which bear an apt and easy resemblance to the history of Jesus, may, or rather must in all reasonable construction, be applied to him.”—Hurdon the Proph., p. 117.]

[265][Consult on this point,Gulick, Theologia Prophetica:Vitringa, Observationes:Hengstenburg, Christologia:Horsley’sTracts and Sermons:King’sMorsels of Criticism:Waugh’sDissertations:Lyall’sPropœdia Prophetica.]

[266]It appears that Porphyry did nothing worth mentioning in this way. For Jerome on the place says:Duas posteriores bestias—in uno Macedonum regno ponit. And as to the ten kings;Decem reges enumerat, qui fuerunt sævissimi: ipsosque reges non unius ponit regni, verbi gratia, Macedoniæ, Syriæ, Asiæ, et Ægypti; sed de diversis regnis unum efficit regum ordinem. [“The two latter beasts he places in one of the Macedonian kingdoms.” “He reckons up ten kings who had been excessively cruel and these not kings of one country, as Macedonia, for instance, or Syria, or Asia, or Egypt; but makes up his set of kings out of different kingdoms.”] In this way of interpretation, any thing may be made of any thing.

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