In order to know the plan on which divine inspiration pro- ceeded, we must trace out the WONDERFUL UNION OF LECTURE I. INTRODUCTION. 1 PETER iii, 15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. It is one mark of the truth of our holy religion, that it courts inquiry. Christianity lays open its claims to every one that asks a reason of the hope which it inspires, and declines no species of fair investigation. The hope of which the apostle here speaks, is that humble confidence of escaping from the deserved wrath of God, and obtaining everlasting life which the death and resurrection of Christ received by faith, were the means of exciting in the breasts of the first Christians, and for which they willingly surrendered all interests and advantages of a worldly nature, and incurred the fiery trial of persecution and death. This hope is for substance the same in every age; and the manner in which the Christian renders a reason of it, cannot essentially differ. His answer will chiefly relate to the unspeakable blessings which Christianity communicates, and the holy effects which it produces; and will dwell on historical and external proofs in proportion as the period in which he lives, and the information of those whom he is anxious to persuade, may require. The hope that is in him will ever be the ultimate object of his reply or APOLOGY. The outward evidences, though requiring in some ages of the church, a long detail, will still be adduced as only subsidiary and subordinate. The Christians of the first century would doubtless assign the reason of their faith in very decisive and energetic terms. "We entertain this blessed hope," would the Ephesian or Thessalonian converts say, "because the Son of God has died for the redemption of sinful man, and has risen again from the dead and sent his apostles with the power of miraculous works, to assure us of the truth of his religion, and invite us to partake of its blessings. We saw the holy apostles. We beheld their miracles. We heard from them the discourses of Christ, and considered well the proofs he gave of his divine mission. We received ourselves the gifts of the Holy Ghost upon believing the divine record. Besides this, we are actually witnesses of the spiritual benefits of the gospel. It has brought us from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God. It has revealed to us the one living and glorious Creator of the universe. It has made known to us the fall and ruin of our nature, and a glorious method of recovery by Jesus Christ. We are delivered from the grossest and most debasing ignorance, idolatry, vice, and misery. We cannot make others understand this inward power of Christ's religion, till they have received it themselves. But we give them all reasonable satisfaction that the religion is from God. We appeal to the undoubted miracles, and the other external evidences which attend the Christian doctrine. We show them the fruits of this divine religion in all who obey it. It makes us new creatures in Christ Jesus. It enables us to live pure and holy and beneficent lives. It strengthens us to rejoice in sufferings and death for Christ's sake. And our desire and wish is to bring them thereby to a subjection of heart to the truth of Christ, that they may themselves be witnesses of the inward blessing which it conveys. Let them attend only seriously to these evidences; and the divine doctrine (α) Ετοιμοιδέ αιοὶ πρὸς ̓ΑΠΟΛΟΓΙΑΝ. will work its own way, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, in their hearts; and they shall receive the same holy influences as ourselves, and be partakers of the same exalted hope of eternal glory." This, we may imagine, would be the sort of prompt reply of one who had known the apostles in the flesh, had witnessed their miracles, had heard their doctrines, had been a partaker of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit; and had thus seen with his own eyes the external evidences, which we receive now through the medium of authentic history. In the second and third centuries, the answer would somewhat vary, as the apostles themselves were no longer in person among their converts, but had left the deposit of their doctrine in the sacred gospels and epistles. The appeal, therefore, would be to these writings for external proofs of the religion; but the holy effects of it on the heart and character would still be the main motive in the breast of the Christian, and would lead him to speak the same decisive language as those in the preceding century. "We cherish the hope of a resurrection to eternal life," would the persecuted Christian converts of the Roman empire in the third age, probably say, "because the promise of it is made to us in those books which were received by our immediate forefathers from the hands of the apostles, and which have ever been accounted sacred amongst us. The originals themselves are in the archives of our several churches. Copies of them are sent out every where. Some of our more aged brethren still remember what doctrine the blessed Polycarp, taught them from the lips of the beloved disciple St. John, who survived so long the other apostles. The facts on which Christianity rests are admitted by our adversaries. But what is the most satisfactory evidence of our religion to ourselves, is that our God and Saviour attests the truth of it by kindling in our hearts the same love to Christ, the same joy of pardon, the same separation from the vices and idolatries of the world, the same patience under persecution, the same delight in (b) Bishop of Smyrna; he suffered martyrdom A. D. 167 or 8. |