270 Apostle Peter's declaration to the Jews, 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: him, whom ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, hath God raised up.' Let it be our care, therefore, to 'hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;' let not the objections of the unbeliever induce us to abandon a cause, for which the companions of Jesus, the witnesses of his miracles and death, yielded up every worldly hope and possession; for which the holy martyrs suffered the most cruel deaths; for which confessors, of both early and later times, have counted all things but loss, rejoicing in the excellency of the knowledge which Christ imparted to the world. And if, as the unbeliever asserts, we be deluded in our hope of immortality founded upon the promises of the gospel and the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, we are, at least, deluded in honourable company, yea, with the great and good of all times and countries. Let it be our aim, therefore, to render ourselves worthy of being numbered with these,-by our faith and piety, our virtue and integrity, our charity and zeal; let us press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and endeavour, earnestly, to attain to the resurrection of the just.' 271 VII. EVIDENCE OF PROPHECY. - Christianity has suffered, fully as much, from the imprudence of the professor, as from the opposition of the unbeliever.-Early adulteration of the doctrines of the gospel.--Chiefly brought about by heathen converts.-Peculiar doctrines of the heathen philosophy respecting the Godhead.-Attempts towards a reconciliation of various sects. Rise of the doctrines of reputed orthodoxy.-Christian religion established by Constantine.-Heathen gods transformed into Christian saints.-Heathen hierarchy, with all the pomp and circumstance of the Gentile service, retained.-Imperfect reformation.-The plainer predictions of the prophets disregarded, and the most splendid figures of prophecy applied literally to Christ, in order to support the popular systems of Christianity -The Jews were accustomed to the like injudicious practice, and, consequently, erred in their views respecting the Messiah.-In both cases, the true Messiah denied.— Unfitness of the more brilliant prophecies for adducing as evidence of the truth of Christianity.-Criteria of distinction between true and pretended prophecies.-Prophecies which certainly refer to our Lord, -Prophecies which were uttered by Jesus -Objections considered. Destruction of Jerusalem, and dispersion of the Jews, UNHAPPILY, the Christian cause has suffered fully as much from the imprudence of the professor, as from the opposition of the unbeliever. The former has injured it by embodying in creeds and confessions of faith, unreasonable and mysterious doctrines, and publishing them to the world as essential parts of the religion of Jesus; and the latter has combated Christianity, chiefly, with the weapons, thus injudiciously furnished him. When we review the discourses of Christ, and find that he taught therein the absolute unity of the Divine Being—that he spake of God as the Father, and that he directed his disciples to pray to the Father: when we find that he spake of himself as the son of man—that he declared that he could do nothing of himself, and that the Father who dwelt in him did the works: when, moreover, after the ascension of their divine Master, we find the Apostles declaring, that, to us Christians, there is but one God, the Fatherwhen we perceive them addressing their prayers to the Father, in the name of his beloved Son, whom they represent as Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God by the miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him: we cannot less than be surprised at the language of the popular creeds, and at the arguments of those who subscribe thereunto. We naturally ask, wherefore, since the Lord Jesus and the Apostles declared the Divine Being to be One, and addressed their prayers to him only, should Christians, of subsequent times, pay religious homage to three persons in the Godhead? Wherefore, since the Lord Jesus speaks of himself as a man and the son of man; and since the Apostles designate him 'Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God,' should those who profess to adhere to their words, address the Saviour, as God over all, blessed for evermore? Wherefore, since the scriptures say, 'in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren,' should those who profess to take them for their rule of faith, represent the Lord Jesus as compounded of two natures, perfect God and perfect man? Strange, indeed, that such a difference should subsist between the teachers and the taught ! It would be irrelevant to our main design, minutely, to trace the steps, by which so wide a departure from the practice and doctrines of Jesus and the Apostles was made: we may observe, however, that these doctrines, so much at variance with the plain letter of scripture, were introduced into the Christian church, and incorporated with the religion of Jesus, at a very early period. Even during the life-time of the Apostles, many errors, tending to obscure the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, and to subvert some of its fundamental tenets, sprung up in the infant churches; and after the decease of these primitive labourers in the gospel vineyard-when Christianity had spread over a great portion of the Roman empire -when Jews and Gentiles-men of divers nations -worshipers of various deities, and philosophers of different sects, had become converts-many opinions, contrary to the principles of the gospel, were introduced, and added to the errors which already existed, until the religion which Christ founded was essentially changed. The chief corrupters of Christian doctrine were the Gentiles. The Jewish converts, though they endeavoured to blend the ceremonies and rites of Judaism, and the traditions of the elders, with 6 Christianity, adhered to the great fundamental doctrine of the unity of God. Wheresoever the Jewish converts had influence, they abridged the liberty wherewith Christ had made his disciples free: nevertheless, the Gentiles brought upon the church of Christ a greater wrong. It had been the complaint of the Apostle, that Christ crucified was to the Greeks foolishness; and the dispositions evinced by the Greeks, towards the doctrines of the cross, may be taken as a fair specimen of the state of mind entertained towards them, by the polite and the learned among the Gentile nations in general. Educated in the belief of the existence of gods many and lords many,' they had heard of religion, only in connexion with the exploits of heroes and the apparitions of Gods. So that when the Apostles preached to them Jesus and the resurrection, they could perceive nothing in the doctrine agreeing with their prejudices, or captivating to their imagination. They shrunk from the disgrace of becoming the disciples of a teacher that had been crucified as a malefactor; and, in general, they turned contemptuously away from discourses which were not distinguished by that abstruseness of doctrine, and pomp of philosophy, to which they had been accustomed, and upon which, they valued themselves so highly. Nevertheless, although the disgrace of the cross, and the simplicity of the Christian doctrines, were great objections with the learned and philosophical among the Gentiles, the obstacles to their be coming Christians might, without much difficulty, be removed, and, to effect this object, some ins judici To orde judices tracing o those of th bore any re forthwith i and simplic paired by th ing, and the Of the va when Christia Plato was the distinguished perfection of w amongst the an Respecting the opinion very m tian Trinity. and principal G word, or wisdom and formed the that, from these called the make had been broug philosophy, beca eagerly embrace word or wisdom See a Course of Lec Worsley, wherein the cor in the Christian church is History of Early Opinions |