Part 11 (1/2)
But the apostles had not these books to a.s.sist them in their ministry; they went on in preaching Jesus and the resurrection, first in the city of Jerusalem, and throughout all Judea, and among the Gentiles with astonis.h.i.+ng success before they wrote the accounts which we have.
Now, sir, on the supposition that the body was stolen will you account for the people's being persuaded that Jesus rose from the dead?--Is it possible to conceive of any thing to which the Jews could have been more opposed, than to the testimony, that the man whom they had crucified was the Messiah, and that G.o.d had raised him from the dead?
Now turn to the account given in Acts, chap. ii. and let reason and candor have their voice in the matter under consideration. ”Therefore let all the house of Israel know a.s.suredly, that G.o.d hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” Can you conceive of any thing that could have been more trying to the feelings of the people? Observe, ”whom ye have crucified.” Bring the matter home to yourself. Suppose you had been active in the prosecution of one of your fellow creatures, and the prosecution should have terminated in the execution of the accused, how would it try your feelings for your neighbours to come and tell you, that you had been the murderer of a good and innocent man? But in the case under consideration there are circ.u.mstances that heighten the importance of the subject. The great Messiah in which all the Jews were educated to believe, as much as we are educated to believe in Christ; this personage is the subject. See the account, ”Now, when they heard this, they, were p.r.i.c.ked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do?” Why do we hear this exclamation? ”Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Why should the people now feel thus affected? Why do they not cry out against the men who accuse them of having done this wickedness, as they did against Jesus a few days before? Can you, sir, believe that all that caused this, was the body's having been stolen from the sepulchre, the disciples having gotten the whim into their heads that Jesus had arose from the dead, now run about like mad men and accuse the people of having murdered the great Messiah, the anointed of G.o.d, affirming that G.o.d had raised him from the dead, when barely the absence of the dead body was all the evidence on which this could be founded? Not only did the testimony of Peter, on this occasion, which will remain a most memorable one while the world stands, carry pungent conviction to the very hearts of the people, but it happily issued in the glorious triumph of faith in the risen Jesus in about three thousand of the then present audience.
In the fore part of this chapter we have an account of the manifestation of the mighty and miraculous power of G.o.d which was the evident cause of the conviction of the people; and to no other cause, I humbly conceive, can we impute such consequences.
Permit me to remark here, that all that ingenuity has ever invented about how the body of Jesus was disposed of, can have no weight at all against the doctrine of the resurrection which the apostles propagated. The body's being absent from the sepulchre never convinced one reasonable being in the world, of the fact of the resurrection. It did not convince those who first saw the sepulchre empty.
”Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping; and they (the angels) say unto her, woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto him, because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.
And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the gardner, saith unto him, sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, 'Mary.' She replied, 'RABBONI!'” How naturally is this account given. In what an artless manner is the story told. I so much admire the sincerity and unaffected love of Mary to her master that the following reflections demand a place here. The person who but three days before was crowned with thorns, was reviled and spat upon, was most ignominiously crucified between two thieves and laid in the sepulchre is so much the object of Mary's affection that she appears solicitous for the body. I cannot doubt the truth of Mary's being here, for the story is told without any design. But why is Mary here?
If Jesus was an impostor she never knew of his working a miracle in her life. But if Jesus was in fact what he pretended to be and if he wrought those miracles which are recorded of him, all is explained.
But it is evident that Mary had not thought of Jesus' having been raised from the dead, when she saw that he was absent from the sepulchre. When Jesus spake to her, and called her by name as he had frequently done before, she knew him. When this Mary and the other women that were with her went to the eleven, and told them the story, they did not believe it, nor does it appear that Peter believed in the resurrection, even after Mary and others had certified him, and he had been himself to the sepulchre and found it empty; but he went away ”wondering in himself at that which was come to pa.s.s.”
The evidences by which the disciples believed in this all-important truth were equal to its importance and to its extraordinary character.
These evidences have been noticed.
2d. The mission of Christ and his apostles, the miracles wrought by them in attestation of that mission, and the credibility of their testimony respecting a future state may now receive some notice.
You are disposed to call on me to inform you what I mean by this mission, to which I reply; I mean a divine appointment to act in a certain official character, accompanied with certain powers by which they were _enabled to evince_, by miracles, this their appointment.
Jesus was appointed by G.o.d himself to reveal the divine character, nature, and will of the Father to the world, by his preaching, by his miracles of mercy, by his sufferings, by his death and resurrection.
The apostles were sent by Jesus Christ on the same mission, on which Jesus himself was sent. See his prayer, John xvii. ”As thou has sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.”
Those who believed in Jesus, and acknowledged him to be the Messiah, believed on account of the miracles which he wrought, and as I have before argued, Jesus never required of any a belief in him, barely on his testimony of himself, but on the evidence afforded by the works which he did in his Father's name. So likewise, those who believed on Jesus through the ministry of the apostles, never were called on to believe but by the authority of as great wonders as were wrought by Christ himself. I need not say much on this particular, as you must know that the ground on which I have here placed this subject, is the ground on which the New Testament places it.
The absurd notions which have been erroneously adopted by Christian doctors and councils concerning the mission of Christ to appease the divine wrath, to reconcile G.o.d to man, to suffer the penalty of the divine law, &c. &c. which have rendered the gospel a mystery and a mist, in room of a high way for the ransomed of the Lord to return to Zion in, is chargeable to the enemy who sowed tares among the wheat.
These opinions with a mult.i.tude of studied inventions about a mysterious work of sovereign elective grace wrought in certain individuals, in an unknown way and frequently in an unknown time all which is to be followed by a system of mysterious sanctification, connected most mysteriously with final perseverance, together with all the intricate unknown items set down in the Westminister Catechism, have only served to perplex some, puff others up with spiritual pride and exalt them in the kingdom of spiritual wickedness in high places, to drive some to despair, and to disgust reason and common sense in others. There is not a word of all the above jargon in the sacred scriptures, which give us a most rational account of the great object of the gospel ministry. This object is the redemption of mankind from moral darkness, which is the whole occasion of moral evil, and to produce that improvement in the religious world which science is designed to effect in the political. It is to bring truth to light, to commend the character of G.o.d to man, to lead all men into the true knowledge, spirit, and temper of the divine nature. Thus we discover in Jesus no partialist, no sectarian, no friend to any one denomination, more than another. And when he had accomplished, by his sufferings, what the prophets had foretold, he then sent his gospel of the love and mercy of G.o.d to the whole world. His divinely inspired apostles followed the examples of their leader and preached the universal, impartial goodness of G.o.d to all men, and confirmed their mission by similar miracles to those wrought by Jesus.
You further inquire the grounds on which we are to believe Jesus and his apostles respecting a future state. Reply, on the same ground on which we believe them in other matters, viz. because they have proved the divinity of their mission or appointment to teach truth by the power of the G.o.d of truth. See 2 Cor. xii. 12, ”Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.” You need not be told that an _apostle_ is a messenger, and that a messenger must have a mission. What then were the signs of St. Paul's mission? Answer, patience, signs, wonders, and mighty deeds. Jesus is said to be the great _apostle_, and high priest of our profession, and he evinced his apostles.h.i.+p by signs, by wonders, and mighty deeds. Now, sir, as these signs were designed to prove to us that Jesus and his apostles were divinely inspired, so they are the ground on which we may safely believe their testimony in all things.
If your inquiry extends further than the plain statements and facts go, you will at once see that they go beyond the demands of reason, for it is an unreasonable thing to require of an uninspired person any further account concerning the way by which an inspired man knows what he says to be true, than it has pleased G.o.d to enable his messenger to make known.
When the pharisees asked the man who was born blind, to whom Jesus had given sight, ”What sayest thou of him? that he hath opened thine eyes?
he said, he is a prophet.” How comes this man to believe that Jesus was a prophet? Because the sign of a messenger of G.o.d had been given.
If the pharisees had asked him, how he knew that Jesus was a prophet, would he not answer them by the miracle wrought upon him? If they should further ask him of particulars, how Jesus could be a prophet, how he knew things which others did not know, would they have discovered any wisdom in their questions? or would he have discovered any in attempting to answer them?
If I may further remark on the mission of Jesus and his apostles, it seems reasonable to say that it comprehends the whole doctrine of the gospel, that is to say, they were appointed to preach the gospel which comprehends the whole ministry of reconciliation, or a manifestation of reconciling truth. There is, therefore, no truth in the gospel which is not calculated in its nature to reconcile man to G.o.d, when such truth is understood.
If our heavenly Father had from all eternity predestinated far the greatest part of mankind to a state of endless un-reconciliation, the revelation of this to them who were thus destined, could have no effect in reconciling them to G.o.d. What had Jesus or his apostles to do with such doctrine as this? Nothing. They make no mention of any such thing. If according to the vain traditions received from the wisdom of this world that cometh to nought, our tender babes were doomed to everlasting wrath for the sin of the first man who lived on earth, the manifestation of such a truth could reconcile none of those victims to this G.o.d of unmerciful vengeance. But what had Jesus to do with such blasphemous doctrine? See him as the representative of G.o.d, as the great apostle of heaven to man, notice what he does and what he says. He takes young children in his arms and blesses them, he says suffer little children, and forbid them not to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. If our Creator was full of wrath and vindictive vengeance towards sinners, the manifestation of such a truth would by no means reconcile sinners to G.o.d; but when G.o.d commendeth his love towards the sinner through the mission, ministry, or dispensation of Jesus Christ, such truth when revealed, naturally reconciles the sinner to G.o.d. G.o.d is eternally the same, his love is the same, his will to do his creatures good is always the same, and his means to carry his good will into effect are always at his command.
Jesus taught sinners, enemies to G.o.d, that G.o.d to whom they were enemies, loved them. This he demonstrated by the rain and sun s.h.i.+ne which was communicated to the evil and the good, and this impartial love of G.o.d, he urged as the perfect pattern for our imitation, and set it up as the mark where lies the prize to be won by our Christian vocation. I say unto you love your enemies, pray for them that use you spitefully and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; that is, that you may imitate him in your conduct and moral character. Now, sir, what has all this to do about reconciling G.o.d to man? What has it to do about appeasing divine wrath? If Jesus taught the doctrine of G.o.d's love to sinners, and our doctrine taught by our Christian doctors of G.o.d's wrath and hatred towards sinners be true, the matter is settled at once. These doctors being ministers of divine truth, Jesus may be any thing else, but he cannot be an apostle and high priest of G.o.d.
But I need not extend this article, you are as well persuaded of the erroneousness of these doctrines of men as I am; but it belongs to this subject, to take a general view of the ministry of Jesus and his apostles. It is so especially, because this view shows at once the necessity as well as the nature of this divine ministry. If you view the nature of truth as you have heretofore expressed it, and as I am confident you do, you cannot reasonably doubt the necessity of having it manifested to the world.
It was necessary then for G.o.d to endue one with this ministry of truth, it is reasonable that others, being taught by him should be appointed to the same ministry; but you will see at once that truth could not be preached to the Jews without moving the superst.i.tious scribes, pharisees, and doctors of the law against it, this opposition hid its natural tendency, and terminated in the death of the divine teacher; and if the disciples had gone on and preached the same doctrine, reason would suppose that they would all have been put to death immediately, and the work of reformation would have stopped.
Now, sir, if I am able to reason at all, it was necessary for G.o.d to make a display of divine power in vindicating truth, which would place it on ground too high for all the superst.i.tion of the world to remove.
You contend that the voice of reason should be heard. What does it say? It says that G.o.d produced man in the first place on this earth, in a different way from that by which man is now multiplied. Reason says, there was a necessity for this; but it does not say that the means of procreation now do not answer even a better purpose than to have man multiplied by the same means by which he came first to exist.
The same reason will contend that in the establishment of the gospel ministry in the world, different means were necessary from those which are successfully employed in perpetuating it.
3d. You contend that the Christian hope of a future happy existence, is not necessary to our present happiness; and that there is nothing more disagreeable in the thought of an eternal cessation of existence, than there is in the thought of reposing ourselves in quiet sleep.
Notwithstanding what you say about non existence, all your play on words makes no difference about the thing talked of. Nor do I see that reason in your observations on this subject, for which you contend.