OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.' SECTION I. I. General division of the following discourse, with regard to Pagan and IV. And heard at a distance by those who pretended to as great miracles as their own. V. Besides, that no Pagan writers of that age lived in Judea or its confines. VI. And because many books of that age are lost. VII. An instance of one record proved to be authentic. VIII. A second record of probable, though not undoubted, authority. THAT I may lay before you a full state of the subject under our consideration, and methodize the several particulars that I touched upon in discourse with you; I shall first take notice of such Pagan authors, as have given their testimony The following work on the Christian Religion has great merit; but, from the nature of it, required a greater detail in the execution. For, as as an ancient writer' has well observed,-fit totum et minus plenum, cum tanta rerum multitudo in angustum coarctanda sit; et brevitate ipsâ minùs clarum, maximè cùm et argumenta plurima et exempla, in quibus lumen est probationum, necesse sit præteriri. However, the plan was ably conceived; and would, without doubt, if the author had lived, have been drawn out to a just extent. For we are told, he had taken great pains in collecting materials for it, and was more assiduous in digesting them than his health would well allow.2 Thus our Addison, like the admirable Pascal, closed his valuable life in meditating a defence of the Christian Religion. One is not surprised to find this agreement in the views of two such men; the one the sublimest genius, and the other the most cultivated, of modern times. But there was this lamented difference in their story. The spirit of Jansenism, 1 Lactantius. Ep. D. J. præf. 2 Life by Mr. Tickell. to the history of our, Saviour; reduce these authors under their respective classes, and show what authority their testimonies carry with them. Secondly, I shall take notice of Jewish authors in the same light. II. There are many reasons, why you should not expect that matters of such a wonderful nature should be taken notice of by those eminent Pagan writers who were contemporaries with Jesus Christ; or by those who lived before his disciples had personally appeared among them, and ascertained the report which had gone abroad concerning a life so full of miracles. Supposing such things had happened at this day in Switzerland, or among the Grisons, who make a greater figure in Europe than Judea did in the Roman empire, would they be immediately believed by those who live at a great distance from them? or would any certain account of them be transmitted into foreign countries, within so short a space of time as that of our Saviour's public ministry? Such kinds of news, though never so true, seldom gain credit, till some time after they are transacted, and exposed to the examination of the curious, who, by laying together circumstances, attestations, and characters of those who are concerned in them, either receive, or reject, what at first none but eye-witnesses could absolutely believe or disbelieve. In a case of this sort, it was natural for men of sense and learning to treat the whole account as fabulous, or, at furthest, to suspend their belief of it, until all things stood together in their full light. III. Besides, the Jews were branded not only for superstitions different from all the religions of the Pagan world, but in a particular manner ridiculed for being a credulous people; so that whatever reports of such a nature came out of that country, were looked upon by the heathen world as false, frivolous, and improbable. IV. We may further observe, that the ordinary practice of magic in those times, with the many pretended prodigies, divinations, apparitions, and local miracles among the heathens, made them less attentive to such news from Judea, falling on a temper naturally scrupulous, and a constitution always infirm, threw a sombrous fanatic air on Pascal's religious speculations, as it did on his life: while our happier countryman, by the benefit of better health and juster principles, maintained a constant sobriety in the conduct of each. till they had time to consider the nature, the occasion, and the end of our Saviour's miracles, and were awakened by many surprising events to allow them any consideration at all. V. We are indeed told by St. Matthew, that the fame of our Saviour, during his life, went throughout all Syria, and that there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Judea, Decapolis, Idumæa, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. Now, had there been any historians of those times and places, we might have expected to have seen in them some account of those wonderful transactions in Judea; but there is not any single author extant, in any kind, of that age, in any of those countries. VI. How many books have perished in which possibly there might have been mention of our Saviour! Look among the Romans, how few of their writings are come down to our times! In the space of two hundred years from our Saviour's birth, when there was such a multitude of writers in all kinds, how small is the number of authors that have made their way to the present age! VII. One authentic record, and that the most authentic heathen record, we are pretty sure is lost. I mean the account sent by the governor of Judea, under whom our Saviour was judged, condemned, and crucified. It was the custom in the Roman empire, as it is to this day in all the governments of the world, for the prefects and viceroys of distant provinces to transmit to their sovereign a summary relation of everything remarkable in their administration. That Pontius Pilate, in his account, would have touched on so extraordinary an event in Judea, is not to be doubted; and that he actually did, we learn from Justin Martyr, who lived about a hundred years after our Saviour's death, resided, made converts, and suffered martyrdom at Rome, where he was engaged with philosophers, and in a particular manner with Crescens the Cynic, who could easily have detected, and would not fail to have exposed him, had he quoted a record not in being, or made any false citation out of it. Would the great apologist have challenged Crescens to dispute the cause of Christianity with him before the Roman senate, had he forged such an evidence? or would Crescens have refused the challenge, could he have triumphed over him in the detection of such a forgery? To which we must add, that the apology, which appeals to this record, was presented to a learned emperor, and to the whole body of the Roman senate. This Father in his Apology, speaking of the death and suffering of our Saviour, refers the emperor for the truth of what he says to the Acts of Pontius Pilate, which I have here mentioned. Tertullian, who wrote his Apology about fifty years after Justin, doubtless referred to the same record, when he tells the governor of Rome, that the emperor Tiberius having received an account out of Palestine in Syria of the Divine Person, who had appeared in that country, paid him a particular regard, and threatened to punish any who should accuse the Christians; nay, that the emperor would have adopted him among the deities whom they worshipped, had not the senate refused to come in to his proposal. Tertullian, who gives us this history, was not only one of the most learned men of his age, but, what adds a greater weight to his authority in this case, was eminently skilful and well read in the laws of the Roman empire. Nor can it be said, that Tertullian grounded his quotation upon the authority of Justin Martyr, because we find he mixes it with matters of fact which are not related by that author. Eusebius mentions the same ancient record, but as it was not extant in his time I shall not insist upon his authority in this point. If it be objected, that this particular is not mentioned in any Roman historian, I shall use the same argument in a parallel case, and see whether it will carry any force with it. Ulpian, the great Roman lawyer, gathered together all the imperial edicts that had been made against the Christians. But did any one ever say, that there had been no such edicts, because they were not mentioned in the histories of those emperors? Besides, who knows but this circumstance of Tiberius was mentioned in other historians that have been lost, though not to be found in any still extant? Has not Suetonius many particulars of this emperor omitted by Tacitus, and Herodian many that are not so much as hinted at by either? As for the spurious Acts of Pilate, now extant, we know the occasion and time of their writing, and that had there not been a true and authentic record of this nature, they would never have been forged. VIII. The story of Agbarus,1 king of Edessa, relating to 1 The story of Agbarus, &c.] Mr. Gibbon, in his History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, taking occasion, I know not how or the letter which he sent to our Saviour, and to that which he received from him, is a record of great authority; and though I will not insist upon it, may venture to say, that had we such an evidence for any fact in Pagan history, an why, to mention this story of Agbarus, king of Edessa, and his correspondence with our Saviour, (to which some countenance is here given,) reprobates that tradition, and its abettors, in the following terms: "The evidence for these Epistles is stated and rejected by the candid Lardner. Among the herd of bigots who are forcibly driven from this convenient, but untenable post, I am ashamed, with the Grabes, Caves, Tillemonts, &c., to discover Mr. Addison, an English gentleman; but his superficial tract on the Christian Religion owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested applause of our clergy." Thus the historian, out of a liberal zeal against a herd of bigots. But he blushes to find Mr. Addison in that number; and, in good breeding, he could do no less, considering that Mr. Addison was not a pedant like the Grabes, Caves, and Tillemonts, but an English gentleman. Let the civility of this phrase then be acknowledged; and yet, as I know what a wag we have to deal with, I more than suspect it was employed only as the oily vehicle of his satire. For he immediately adds, that this tract of the English gentleman on the Christian Religion is a superficial tract; and that it owes its credit to his name, his style, and the interested applause of our clergy. : A superficial tract!-As if the author, or anybody else for him, had given it out, as an elaborate and complete work on the subject. Yet, if by superficial he means, not solid, or deficient in point of argument, I apprehend our critical historian is much mistaken. A single mistake (if the story he alludes to be one) in a large collection of evidence will not prove the charge and a more exact and minute detail of facts could only set his arguments in a stronger light; not turn a bad argument into a good one. But superficial as it is, it has gained credit in the world, which, however, he ascribes to his name, (and with reason, for it is a very good one,) and to his style, (very reasonably again, for his style is excellent, and must needs do honour to any work in which it is employed,) and to the interested applause of our clergy. Here the reason is not so apparent. The clergy, it seems, have cried up his defence of Christianity, because they have an interest in his defence of it. But, what interest, let me ask, besides that which all honest men have in the maintenance of truth, virtue, and piety; in the prevalence of which, all their dearest interests, present and to come, are included? No, he will say, "it is the interest which the clergy have in supporting falsehood and imposture, for the sake of the emoluments annexed to the public teaching of the Christian Religion." That is, he thinks the English clergy ready to say anything for a piece of bread, and that, for the most part, a coarse and scanty one, too. Such is the candour of our virtuous historian. But let him think of our clergy as he sees fit. They will certainly go on to applaud such writers as Mr. Addison, who to an excellent head joined an honest heart; and who knew how to instruct, at once, and delight his readers with good sense, unspoiled by philosophy; and a style of writing not corrupted by affectation. |