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And from the demand which Christianity makes....
Unbelief condemned by its own temper..
Address to the Unbeliever..
Youthful hearer...
Believer
....
LECTURE III.
Page
38
40
41
43
THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF A DIVINE REV-
ELATION SHOWN FROM THE STATE OF MAN IN
ALL AGES.-ROм. i. 19-24...
......
THE HEATHEN WORLD BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST had lost
the doctrine of the Being of God...
Possessed no distinct knowledge of virtue and vice.
Were destitute of moral instruction..
And without hope of recovery,.
THE UNBELIEVERS SCATTERED NOW OVER CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES
derive their knowledge from Christianity..........
But remain unfruitful.................
THE HEATHEN NATIONS OF THE PRESENT DAY afford no instance in
which the light of nature has proved sufficient to guide man to
his duty and happiness—India,..
.......
Africa...
Russia, &c...
A uniformity between their vices and those of the heathen before
the promulgation of Christianity....
..................
IN CHRISTIAN COUNTRIES, IN PROPORTION AS DIVINE REVELATION
IS INADEQUATELY KNOWN, men decline in piety..
Observe France, Italy, Spain...
........
Observe our own population where the Bible is not known.
Our own hearts, when deficient in spiritual knowledge.
The general impression of the need of a revelation...
Its probability..
Infidelity blots out every hope for man..
The necessities of a practical student expound to him the state of
mankind..
He is thankful for his lot.
Missionary efforts..
LECTURE IV.
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.-2
Tuzs. i 17..
63
Authenticity important....
Page.
.... 63
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS; the authenticity of the New Testa-
ment proved in the ordinary way of ascertaining the genuineness
of other ancient works...
Not one mark of spuriousness is found in our sacred books..
The circumstances of the case make it impossible that they should
be forgeries..
Men practically act on the slightest grounds as to the authenticity
of writings, where the contents commend themselves to their
judgment...
73
The burden of proof lies on the objector to Christianity.
The providence of God conspicuous in the evidences of authen-
ticity..
76
77
The duty of having an authentic faith in the truths of Christianity 78
LECTURE V.
THE DIRECT PROOF OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT.-ACTS xxvi. 26.........
80
The testimony to our sacred books can be traced up from the
present time to the days of the apostles......
The sacred canon was settled with care and discrimination..... 82
There are all the marks of integrity and truth in the testimony of
ancient Christians...
.....
84
Admissions of heathen and Jewish adversaries..
Number and antiquity of our manuscripts..
None of these external proofs of authenticity can be adduced for
the Apocryphal books of the New Testament..
88
90
91
The style and manner of the books of the New Testament furnish
an unanswerable proof of their genuineness..
92
Unexpected confirmations from a Syriac version of the New Tes-
tament...
Codex Alexandrinus.
Moso-Gothic version..
A remarkable fragment discovered in 1740..
The sacred volume is unique and unparalleled..
Review of the argument for the authenticity..
Love of Christians to the Bible..
95
96
97
100
101
102
LECTURE VI.
CREDIBILITY OF THE GOSPEL HISTORY.-LUKE i.
1-4.
104
THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE BOOKS INVOLVES THE CREDIBILITY;
for it is very rare to meet with any authentic histories, in which
the principal facts are untrue....
105
The principal facts of the New Testament are very few, and pe-
culiarly prominent..
106
Testimonies already adduced to the genuineness of the books,
prove their credibility..
107
PROOFS OF CREDIBILITY DERIVED FROM OTHER SOURCES; from
the governors of the Roman provinces..
108
From heathen writers...
109
From Jewish writings, especially Josephus.
110
THE CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SACRED WRITERS
ESTABLISH THE CREDIBILITY OF THEIR WRITINGS.......
The number of witnesses..
From the religious rites and usages springing out of the facts of
Christianity, which continue to the present day..
From several ancient monuments which have survived the wreck
of time.........
From the character of many of the converts to the Christian faith 114
From the testimony of Mahomet.....
114
They had full knowledge of the things they attest....
117
The testimony they bear is to facts of which they were competent
judges.....
118
They were persons of transparent integrity of character.
Of sound mind, and by no means credulous or rash...
119
They relate events at the spot where they occurred, and before
the multitudes who witnessed them...
120
Their whole subsequent lives were marked by unparalleled benev-
olence and holiness..
They had nothing to expect for their testimony but temporal ca-
lamities and death....
No one convert ever complained of being imposed upon..
If our account be false, where is the true one?.
121
THE AUTHENTICITY AND CREDIBILITY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.. 122
Fidelity of the English translation.
123
Our faith must practically correspond with what we have admitted
in argument.
Every miracle consists of two distinct and palpable facts...
THE WONDERFUL ACTIONS ASCRIBED TO OUR SAVIOUR AND HIS
APOSTLES REALLY TOOK PLACE....
130
131
The credibility of the gospel history applies to these very actions. 132
They were believed by the converts of the first century, and at-
tested to those of the second...
Institutions still subsist which took their rise from them..
The minute and artless account of them seals their truth.
Objections answered; fallibility of human testimony..
Experience
Transmission of remote facts..
THESE FACTS WERE, PROPERLY SPEAKING, MIRACULOUS.
The facts of the gospel were plain and palpable miracles..
They were done openly as divine acts..
Before the Jewish nation, accustomed to judge of miracles..
And were both numerous and various.
132
133
135
136
137
138
139
Our Lord was himself the subject of miracles..
Permanent effects were produced by the gospel miracles.
They were wrought for a high and holy end..
THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE MIRACLES AND THE RELIGION
THEY ARE SAID TO ATTEST IS SUCH AS TO PROVE ITS DIVINE
ORIGIN...
142
Our Saviour and his apostles appeal to their mighty works.
They were predicted as the evidence of the Messiah..
An appropriate attestation to a divine religion.....
143
They were performed by those who had all other signs of a divine
mission..
The inference from the miracles to the truth of Christianity is
conclusive.
144
They are incorporated with the instructions..
The success of the gospel, resting on the miracles, proves that the
doctrine was from God.
145
No other religion ever was established by miracles, but the religion
of the Bible..
146
The importance of yielding to conviction.
The impression which a review of Christian miracles is calculated
to produce....
147
148
The danger of resting in a mere historical faith..
149
LECTURE VIII.
DIVINE AUTHORITY OF CHRISTIANITY.-PROPHE-
CY.-2 PETER i. 16-21.......
151
A review of the whole argument to this point..
The argument from prophecy compared with that from miracles.. 152
Definition of prophecy..
154
The extent of scriptural prophecy..
The harmony of all its parts in the person and salvation of our
The practical and important ends which the scheme of prophecy
subserved, and still subserves, in the church.....
164
The prodigious scheme of prophecy has the impress upon it of the
infinite majesty of God...
168
It should stimulate the humble inquirer...
He should study the sacred volume with holy and increasing dili-
gence.....
169
And always with a view to some practical end.
LECTURE IX.
DIVINE AUTHORITY.—THE FULFILMENT OF PROPH-
ECY.-ISAIAH xli. 21-24...
172
Part I. THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PROPHECIES RESPECTING THE
MESSIAH proves a divine prescience.
Predictions marking out the Messiah, and fulfilled in our Lord... 173
Respecting his birth...
173
His life, sufferings and death..
174
His miracles and doctrine...
175
His twofold character, God and man..
The number of the prophets, and the independence of their pre-
dictions
176
The circumstances connected with the fulfilment, especially the
accumulation of prophetical inspiration....
178
The spiritual offices predicted of Messiah, which our Lord fulfilled,
and is now fulfilling in the church....
182
The humble acknowledgment of faith in the Messiah.
The contrast afforded by the unbelief of the Jews..
184
The duty of seeking after the spiritual blessings which Messiah
bestows..
185
Part II. THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY, IN EVENTS WHICH RE-
LATE TO THE JEWISH AND CHRISTIAN CHURCH, CONFIRMS THE
PRECEDING EVIDENCE.
187
Our Lord's prophecy of the destruction of the city and polity of
the Jews, and the dispersion of the people...
Accomplishment of prophecies relating to cities..
The future conversion of the world, and the final triumph of holi-
ness and truth....
204
The peculiar force of the argument derived from prophecy....... 206