General Observations on the Redemption of Mankind By Jesus Christ.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE

REDEMPTION OF MANKIND BY JESUS CHRIST.

IF the loadstone can communicate its virtue without suffering any decrease; and if this virtue can completely incorporate itself with iron, why might not the eternal Word, who dwells essentially in the Father, communicate himself to an individual of the human species, and reside particularly in the soul of the Saviour Jesus Christ, or God - man? By which other men may be made partakers of the holiness and felicity of God, without becoming real gods: as the needle, having its extremes powerfully touched with the loadstone, partakes of the attraction and polarity of the loadstone, without being of the nature of the loadstone. God is an infinite being, and all his perfections are infinite as himself: his holiness, his justice, his bounty, and his wisdom, are such a vast profound, that the human mind cannot fathom them. Can we then affirm, without temerity, that in the depths of justice, of holiness, and of love for order, there ought not to be such extreme severity, as to preclude the pardon of sin, even after a just indignation had been manifested against the same? If the majesty of God is infinite, is it reasonable to say that the sins committed against him by an innumerable multitude of beings; crimes committed with the greatest insolence, and the most daring pride; crimes perpetrated by creatures loaded with his benefits; crimes repeated with a thousand aggravating circumstances, during thousands of years, in all parts of the world: is it reasonable, I say, to maintain that these crimes ought to be pardoned by a legislature of infinite justice, without punishing this criminal race in a most exemplary manner? And if such a punishment would have bruised all the guilty; and if the bounty of God is as vast as his justice, is it reasonable to suppose that an infinite bounty cannot present to an infinite justice a victim of boundless merit, fully to expiate, under conditions worthy of God, sins whose numbers were become infinite and boundless, by their duration, by violating the holiness of the laws, by the grandeur of the offended Benefactor, by the majesty of the outraged Legislator, and by the insolence of the violators of these laws? Hath not boundless Wisdom power to reconcile the rights of infinite justice and bounty? What absurdity is there in the plan of redemption, according to which a being of innocence, of love for obedience, of an incomprehensible fortitude, generously unites himself with human nature, to pay the immense debt of this nature, to soften the hearts old the rebels, and to give to all reasonable beings the most perfect demonstration of a wisdom, of a bounty of a holiness, and of a justice, which are infinite; and accommodates himself to the maintenance of their rights, and completely to develope them in time and in eternity? Is it not strange that such a plan, formed by the love, the justice, the wisdom, and the bounty of the Supreme Being, executed by the incarnate Word, confirming a great number of prophecies; a plan which has the admiration of angels, and of millions of pious persons for so many ages; which hath comforted such multitudes of penitents, in the most frightful circumstances; and hath made so many martyrs to triumph under the greatest torture, and even sing in the cold arms of death: is it not strange, I say, that such a plan should be the constant topic of ridicule to Socinians and Deists? Can the finite always judge of the infinite? Are the pretended advocates for reason constantly so unreasonable, as absolutely to fix what the justice of the Supreme Being ought to demand, what the moral order of the universe ought to require, and how infinite bounty ought to accommodate itself to its creatures? How absurd must that religion be, which lays for its foundation this dogma of the sages of our age! “A being bounded as I am, who neither knows his grandson nor grandfather; who is ignorant of the nature of his own soul, and of those vile atoms which constitute his body, can yet be so perfectly acquainted with the profound depths of Divine justice, mercy, and wisdom, as clearly to decide that the redemption of mankind by the propitiatory sacrifice of the Son of God, is contrary to his perfections.” Is not the base incredulity of our modern philosophers owing to their contracted views of the bounty of God, of the excellency of an immortal soul, and of the odious nature of sin? “It is impossible,” say they, “that the ‘eternal Word, the Prince of life,’ should become incarnate, and be sacrificed for human nature.” But, if the soul of man was formed in the image of God; if it is infinite in its duration and desires; if its progress toward perfection is boundless; if God loves it with that tenderness with which a father nourishes his child; if the love which is in God as much surpasses the generosity of all fathers, and the tenderness of all mothers, as the infinite surpasses the finite, - is it reasonable to say that our heavenly Father, for the ransom of millions of souls, would not offer such a sacrifice as his incarnate Word? If King Codrus loved his subjects so far as to disguise and offer himself to death, in order to procure them certain temporal advantages; if the Deciuses and the Curtiuses felt so strong an interest in the welfare of their country, as to sacrifice their lives in order to deliver their fellow citizens from a transient calamity; if a Swiss so generously devoted himself to death, by running to Sampach covered with the lances of conflicting hosts, to clear the way for his victorious companions; if mothers have sacrificed their own lives to preserve those of their children; and if love, or the generous desire of saving one’s neighbour, hath produced many sacrifices, - is it absurd to say that infinite bounty never could, and never would, perform an act of compassion equally glorious and efficacious, to deliver millions of souls from more dreadful miseries, and to procure to them the blessing of an infinite duration, and of an inestimable value?

O ye, who love wisdom, and who merit the name of philosophers, if you contemplate the majesty of the Supreme Being, the immensity of his perfections, the holiness of his laws, the beauty of moral order, the demerit of sin, and the price of souls which Jesus Christ hath redeemed, you will see that it is absurd even to doubt that God had power, or will, to offer a sacrifice of infinite value for their redemption. If you say that this redemption of human nature by the humiliation and sufferings of the incarnate Word, is unworthy of God; it is demanded of you, whether it be unworthy of a Being infinitely good to give an astonishing proof of his bounty? Is it unworthy of a Being infinitely just, to display his justice in a most exemplary manner? Is it unworthy of infinite Wisdom, to form a Divine man sufficiently rich to become the pledge of his brethren, sufficiently strong to bear the burden which must Otherwise have depressed them, sufficiently wise and good to obtain for them the pardon of sin, and become for them the model of perfect holiness, and the channel of all grace, by which they may recover that holiness and glory from which they have fallen?

“But it is incredible (you say) that the Prince of life should die.” Understand us: the Prince of life did not properly die; this being absolutely impossible: but the Prince of life, being united to a mortal body, could easily quit it two or three days, after having endured unutterable anguish. As the mortal body entered into a state of death, the sacrifice offered to Divine justice was complete, the tomb was consecrated for the consolation of mortals, the faithful have a certain earnest or pledge of their resurrection in that of their chief; and the Saviour fully showed himself the

“resurrection and the life,” in rising victorious from the grave, into which he had entered, “to destroy him who had the power of death, and to deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage?” Hebrews 2:14, 15. In short, if the Word was abased on earth for the space of thirty three years, and by his condescension left his body to repose in the tomb for three days, what is this short space for the Prince of eternity? A thousand years in his sight are but as one day; and three days are but as the twinkling of an eye; and, far from being dishonoured by this momentary act of pity, of love, and of mercy, he hath acquired, in the sight of all reasonable beings, a glory so grand, that, sooner or later, every knee both in heaven and on earth shall bow before him. We may then conclude, with St. Paul, that “the preaching of the cross is, to them that perish, foolishness; but unto them who are saved, it is the power of God, and the wisdom of God,” 1 Corinthians 1:18 - 24.

II. Particular observations on the Redeemer. If the preceding reflections prove that the opinion of redemption by Jesus Christ is conformable to reason, the following will serve to prove that the Deists are unreasonable; and that the foolish credulity with which they tax us may with justice be charged upon them.

O ye who refuse to believe in Jesus Christ, can you absolutely refuse to credit any thing concerning him? And if you believe something, will you not have greater difficulty in giving an account of your belief, than the Christian has in giving a reason of his faith? If you think the Christian Legislator never existed but in the imagination of his followers, you are pressed with a multitude of witnesses, both Jewish and Pagan, as well as by those of the Christians, and even by all the Mohammedans. The Jews never denied the existence of Jesus Christ, though they have thought themselves justified in rejecting him, notwithstanding the striking prediction of David, Psalm 22:16.

The heathens do not permit us to doubt the reality of his existence; witness Pliny the younger, Tacitus, Lucian, and Suetonius, four Pagan authors, who were contemporaries of St. John, or of his disciples. Pliny, who flourished about twenty years after the destruction of Jerusalem, and who was governor of Bythinia, wrote to the. Emperor Trajan, that he had put two Christian slaves to the torture: “But I find nothing (said he) but a bad and extravagant superstition.”f12 He calls the zeal and constancy of the Christians “a wilful and inflexible stubbornness.”f13 Speaking of those whom fear had driven to renounce their profession of religion, he adds, “They declared that all their fault or error consisted in assembling before light, on a fixed day, and singing a hymn unto Christ as to a god.”f14 They certainly never would have exposed themselves to death for the support of an imaginary person, or the hero of a romance: Jesus Christ has existed, and given proofs of his divinity, since Christians of both sexes, and of every age, were ready to die for him, at a time when ocular evidence, and recent facts, left no means to cover an imposture. This persecution commenced before the reign of Trajan; for the Emperor Nero, having caused fire to be set to the city of Rome, in order to form an idea of the burning of Troy, punished the Christians as if they had been authors of the crime. Behold how Tacitus mentions this event in the fifteenth book of his Annals: - “Nero, to smother the noise of his crime, suborned false witnesses to accuse a people hated for their iniquities, commonly called Christians; making them undergo the most dreadful punishments. The author of this sect is Christus, whom Pontius Pilate, the governor, put to death. This pernicious sect, which had been suppressed for some time, recovered strength not only in Judea, where it originated, but likewise in Rome, which is the common sink of the crimes and follies of all the world. They seized on all who professed themselves Christians: in short, by the imperial mandate, an immense multitude were condemned, less for having set fire to Rome, than because they were objects of universal hatred. They added mockeries to their tortures. Some were covered with skins of ferocious animals, and torn by dogs; others crucified, and others burned in the evenings, to illuminate the streets during the night.” These passages are cited, not only to show that the heathens acknowledged the existence of Jesus Christ, and the innocence of Christians, but also to demonstrate the exact accomplishment of the prophecies: “Ye shall be hated of all nations for my sake,” said the Saviour. The Christians were the objects of universal hatred, saith Tacitus. I mention this to refute Voltaire, who tells his dupes that “Domitian was the first of the Cesars who disturbed the Christians.” St. Luke informs us that the Emperor Claudius commanded all Jews to depart from Rome, Acts 18:2. And Suetonius, a heathen historian, in his Life of Claudius, twenty - fifth chapter, agrees with the sacred penman, saying, “He drove the Jews from Rome, who caused continual tumults at the instigation of one Chrestus,”f15 the name which the Pagans generally gave to Jesus Christ. If Jesus had never existed but in the imagination of his disciples, Lucian, in his Peregrinus, could not have called him “the great man crucified in Palestine;”f16 nor could he have said “that the Christians forsook the Pagan divinities, to adore their crucified Master.”f17 Had our Divine Master been no more than a grand sophist, (as Lucian insinuates,) Heaven would not have confirmed his prediction concerning the temple of Jerusalem by a striking prodigy. Behold the fact: - “The disciples of Christ (saith St. Matthew 24:1) came to him for to show him the buildings of the temple; and Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.” As if he had said, This fine temple is going to be destroyed, and with it shall end the continual sacrifice, offered by the Jewish priests to God. When the Emperor Julian had replunged himself in Pagan darkness, he burned with a crafty zeal against the Christian religion; thinking to weaken it by proving that Jesus Christ was a false prophet; and imagining this would be sufficiently done by rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem, and enabling the Jews again to offer their sacrifices. But the attack was against the King of kings. Rufinus and Sozomen mention this business at large. (See what Ammianus Marcellinus says in his Annals, book 23.) “Julian, having a great desire to perpetuate the memory of his reign, by the grandeur of his enter prizes, formed the design of rebuilding the superb temple of Jerusalem, which having been taken by assault, after many bloody encounters, was destroyed, while Vespasian and Titus were carrying on the siege. To rebuild this temple would require immense sums. Julian charged Alipius of Antioch with the undertaking; him who had commanded in Britain under the governors. But when Alipius, seconded by the governor of the provinces, was eager to advance the work, globes of fire, bursting suddenly from the earth, near the foundations of the building, rendered the place inaccessible by the constant assaults which they made upon the workmen, many of whom perished by the flames. So that they were obliged to desist from pursuing the enterprise, to which fate and the element of fire were so strongly opposed.” More than this could scarcely be expected from a heathen author, who had been a general in Julian’s army; but he speaks sufficiently clear, so as not to leave any doubt of the truth of so remarkable an event.

If Pagan authors have only spoken of Jesus Christ indirectly, or slightly, it is not the same with the Mohammedans. Though in many respects they are Pagans, (saith the learned Dr. Moore,) their law contains many articles of the Old and the New Testament. The principal dogma of their faith, and which with ravishment they constantly confess in their mosques, is, “There is but one God.” It is true, this is only what is believed by the Jews: but the Mohammedans go much farther, having a design to prove that they merit the name of semi - Christians, which is given them by a learned author: for in both their Koran and the Zuna it is declared, “That Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and that he was born of the Virgin Mary.” “That the Gospel is the light, the way, and the salvation of men, and that such as reject it shall perish.” “That Christ knew the thoughts of the heart, gave sight to the blind, and speech to the dumb, healed incurable diseases, and raised the dead.” The Koran even attributes three advantages to Jesus Christ, which it refuses to Abraham, to Moses, and to Mohammed himself; the first is, “that he was translated soul and body into heaven,” front whence (it is said in the Zuna) “he shall return to judge the world in righteousness.” The second is, that he shall be called “The Word of God:” and the third, that he shall be named, “The Holy Spirit of God.” (See Confusio Sectae Mohammedanae, by Johannes Andreas, and many others.) I would remind my readers that the reason of the above quotations is first, to show, that though the Koran so much disfigures Christianity, for the chastising of disobedient and hypocritical Christians; yet it admits enough of our doctrines to overthrow idolatry, and the external empire of Satan upon earth; insomuch that in Africa and India, Mohammedanism prepares idolaters for the reception of Christianity: and secondly to nourish our hope, that the Mohammedans, who have already such exalted notions of Jesus Christ, will embrace the Gospel, when the great scandals of the Christian Churches shall be done away; the additions which Mohammed has made to the Gospel being founded only upon false miracles and absurd reveries. On the contrary, pure Christianity contained in the Gospel, is so reasonable, that all who examine with candour are obliged to acknowledge the force of those proofs which demonstrate its truth. From the above citations it is evident, that both Jews, Pagans, and Mohammedans have acknowledged the existence of our grand Prophet in such a manner that it remains an indubitable fact.

If you imagine that Jesus Christ was a false prophet, you believe that it was by mere chance that the temple and city of Jerusalem were destroyed, according to his prediction: and that it is mere accident which preserves the Jews in their dispersion and opprobrious condition, so clearly foretold by Moses. Or you suppose, against all probability, that the harmony of the Jewish and Christian prophecies, in this respect, is an imposture, plotted between Jews and Christians, to impose upon the world. Upon this supposition you likewise imagine, that when Jesus Christ said to his disciples, “I will make you fishers of men:” “Lo, I am with you to the end of the world:” “The gates of hell shall not prevail against my Church;” - you imagine, I say, that when Jesus Christ spake thus, he saw by accident that his Gospel would spread through all the Roman empire, and that the most powerful monarchs, Diocletian and Julian, should not be able to overturn Christianity; that his holy doctrine would be disseminated through all parts of the known world, and would even civilize nations in a part of the globe not then discovered. You moreover think that it was by mere chance that Jesus Christ foretold, in these words, the vile hypocrisy and scandalous divisions of wicked Christians: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold.”

Notwithstanding this spiritual apostasy of Christians in our days, so clearly foretold by Jesus Christ and his apostles, (compare Matthew 24., 10, with 2 Timothy 3:1 - 5, and 2 Thessalonians 2:3, and 1 John 2:18,) we see the other part of our Lord’s prediction accomplishing, and Christianity daily extending through Russia and Siberia, even unto China and the east; while in the west it is franchising the Americans from that savage ferocity so natural to them.

It is vain superstition, credulity, false philosophy, and the rank apostasy of baptized infidels and professing worldlings, which rush forward, like the raging waves of the boiling deep, to overwhelm the fair structure of Christianity and to sap its firm foundations. But all their waves are broken: the Rock on which she stands remains immovable; and the prophecies of the Redeemer are daily advancing toward their full and complete accomplishment. “His fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into his garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” Matthew 3:10.

Twenty absurdities flow from the system of incredulity; for if you believe with some that the son of Mary was an impostor, you believe that a man whose character was the most modest and the most virtuous in the eyes of reason, through his whole life played a part the most abominable and diabolical. You suppose that an ambitious man (for such was Jesus if he was not the King of kings) was formed in a manner so different from other men, as openly to attack the prejudices of those among whom he was going to establish his reign; and that, contrary to appearances and to the springs of the human mind, he had formed the plan of bringing about his purpose by the cross, and rising to immortal honours by a death the most infamous.

If you say Jesus Christ was not an impostor, but a virtuous man, though a great enthusiast, you weave another web of absurdities. As a fanatic, could he conduct himself through his whole life with a wisdom and moderation which could never be impeached? As an illiterate man, with a brain deranged by folly, could he produce a system of morality more perfect than those of all legislators and of all philosophers? Beside, enthusiasts betray, at one time or other, such extravagances as shock right reason and manifest their folly; on the contrary, in the conduct of Jesus Christ, as well as in his morality, nothing is seen but a wisdom replete with sweetness, as far from fanaticism as moderation is from fury.

“One thing which charms me in the character of Jesus (says J. J. Rousseau) is not only the simplicity of his manners, but the facility, the grace, and even elegance. Although he was not the wisest of mortals, he was the most amiable.” (His third letter to Montaigne.) Moreover, as a man, who never showed himself but to attack all kinds of vice, could he have been an honest man if he had supported false pretensions by roguery, continual fraud, and imposture? There is no medium; either Jesus Christ is the incarnate Word; and as such he has confirmed his assertions by true miracles; or he was the most daring of impostors when he said, “I am the light of the world,” - “Verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” “All men ought to honour the Son even as they honour the Father.” “He who hath seen me hath seen my Father also.” “I have a greater witness than that of John; the works that I do bear witness that the Father hath sent me.” “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not: but if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works.” “Go and tell John what things ye have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, and the dead are raised.”

If, yielding to the force of this multiplied evidence, you acknowledge that Jesus Christ and his apostles sustained their mission by miraculous works, you do no more than was done by Caiaphas, Celsus, Porphyry, those ancient enemies of Christianity who examined these evidences even up to their source, and who wanted neither penetration to discover their falsity, nor judgment to demonstrate the same, had such a fraud existed. And in this case reason will oblige you either to receive the Gospel, or to say, with obstinate unbelievers, that Jesus Christ and his apostles performed their miracles by the power of magic. But is it not much easier to believe in the Gospel than in this occult science? Beside, is it not most unreasonable to suppose that devils would league with Jesus Christ and his apostles to destroy the empire of vice, to overturn idols, to enlighten mankind, and to carry all the moral virtues to their highest degree of perfection, both in theory and practice?

Your system involves you in the same embarrassment with regard to the apostles. You are obliged to acknowledge, that either they were the true envoys of God, or else that persons of the greatest simplicity in conduct and writing, wherein they have displayed the most shining virtues, were only a band of the most obstinate knaves and liars. For, in constantly attesting the resurrection of their Master as eve witnesses of the fact, and in persisting in their evidence even unto death, without ever recanting, they were deeply stained with the most palpable knavery, and sustained it with more guile than was ever found among sharpers, and with more stubbornness than was ever manifested by robbers, where of one in twelve at least confess their imposture and guilt when conducted to the last place of punishment. On the contrary, here one of the twelve, who suffered himself to be seduced by the enemies of his Master, after having done justice to his character, took away his own life in despair, to which he resigned himself for having betrayed innocent blood.

And wherefore so much zeal and constancy? If truth, seconded by a series of clear and evident facts, and by supernatural succours from heaven, had not supported the disciples of Jesus Christ even to the last moment of their bold and unshaken confession, what motives, what rewards, could have so strongly attached them to a crucified Master, as every where to preach his cross, sharing his poverty, his troubles, and his death?

If Jesus Christ be not risen, as he foretold, and if he did not fulfil his promise in shedding upon the apostles miraculous gifts, our credulity must needs exceed all bounds, in believing that twelve ignorant, twelve poor Galilean fishermen, at the instigation of a knave who had deceived them, should take it into their heads to subvert all religions in the world, beginning with that of their fathers, and should have accomplished their project without any other support but that of lies and the cross of their Master; without any other arms than moral precepts which offend the passions; without any other bait than a doctrine which crucifies the flesh; and without any other allurement than dogmas which subvert the pride of philosophers. Such are the notions of our infidels, who so justly merit the name of fine geniuses, critics, and connoisseurs, because they can digest opinions destitute of probability.

Ought one not to have a soul all credulity, and proof against every ray of sound reason, to persuade one’s self that twelve blind persons, set out from London to go and sap all the foundations of all the strong cities in Europe and Asia; and that they had accomplished their design without being seconded by a supernatural power, and without any other weapons than their walking sticks? Monstrous as this absurdity may appear, it is no greater than to suppose that twelve Jewish fishermen, without miraculous succours, overturned the foundations of Judaism and of Paganism, throughout the known world, in spite of all efforts that were made by all the priests and princes to oppose the religion of Jesus Christ. O ye Deists, ye may applaud yourselves for your incredulity! But remember, that if prejudice and passion favour your system, we have reason, experience, and facts; and, after all, the absurdities which you are obliged to swallow in rejecting revelation, are more difficult to digest than the dogmas at which you stumble without reason. And never for get that faith leads to a hope the most sweet, and to a charity the most perfect; while your opinions conduct you to gloomy despair, and to a license that, after having broken the yoke of revelation, will not fail to destroy that of conscience. Melancholy observation this! the truth of which might be easily demonstrated by a multitude of anecdotes upon your apostles, if these kinds of proofs had not something in them too odious.