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CHAPTER III.

Originality of the Christian Doctrines.

Ir was argued in the preceding chapter, that several of the leading doctrines taught by Jesus and his followers, are such as could not be expected to originate from Jews. This appears on the surface. The Messiah desired by the Jews was conspicuous and powerful. The Christian Messiah was humble and unknown. The Jewish religion was national and unsocial: the Christian religion was open and universal. The characteristic of the Jewish religion was its ceremonial strictness: the characteristic of the Christian religion is spirituality. The Jews adored their city: Jesus foretold its destruction. So that Christianity cannot be said to have grown up out of Judaism, though it was grafted upon a Jewish stock; its character was entirely new,

ciples existing among Jews, as to the habits of polytheism.

If we examine the matter further, we shall find much more that is equally surprising. Let me remind the reader, that unless Christianity was of divine origin, it was a system invented by human ingenuity. And the authors who invented it, invented it with a view to its being received. If I imagine the case of persons embracing such a design, I must suppose them considering, both what doctrines it were possible for them to propose, and what doctrines were likely to prove acceptable.

The success of Mahommed's imposture may be ascribed in a great degree to the simplicity of what he taught, and its agreement with human reason, as well as with the previous belief of many of his disciples. "There is one God" a truth however obscured by the errors of idolatry, or lost in the darkness of ignorance, such as reason is willing to acquiesce in, and finds confirmed by the general appearance of the

world.

"Mohammed is his prophet." In declaring this fundamental part of his creed, he was careful to disturb no prejudices, and treated the feelings both of Jews and Christians with tenderness. While he asserted his own superiority, he gave station and authority in his scheme to Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, and to Jesus. There is nothing in his Koran which we are surprised to find there: nothing which may not be traced back to existing opinions, or to books within his reach. The truth to which he owed his success, and to which the long duration of his religion must be chiefly attributed, the unity of the godhead, he found in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures: he had only to pronounce it anew, and to clear away the intrusive worship of images and martyrs, saints and angels, which had corrupted the church in that dark age and country.

When I subject Christianity to a similar test, no such result appears. I cannot account for its fundamental doctrines. They are agreeable,

explain appearances which are and always have been universal throughout the world: they suit the character and meet the necessities of mankind; but they are so far from being on that account" as old as the creation," that a moment's reflection on what the tenets of the Gospel really are, will show them to be in the strictest sense original. Like the theory of attraction, they explain phenomena long observed and every where observable; but like that theory, the explanation was perfectly novel. It is difficult to suppose that unauthorized men, of any rank, education, or country, could ever have undertaken to promulgate such doctrines.

"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost."-" So God loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that all that believe in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life."

It is implied in these passages, and others which confirm them, that mankind are under the

1 Matt. xviii. 11; John, iii. 16.

wrath and condemnation of God; who had sent his Son, in the form and nature of man, to undergo in his own person the penalty incurred by sin, and to proclaim the offer of eternal happiness to as many as became his faithful and obedient disciples.

Now, when we reflect on these propositions, and divest our minds of the familiarity derived from long acquaintance with them, do they appear such as would be likely to occur to any man, or party of men, as the foundation of a religious system, which they were intending to promulgate to the world? Can we believe that imposture, having an unlimited field open before it, would choose this ground to expatiate upon? There is no reason to think that, as Jews, the authors would entertain this view of the state of mankind; still less, that supposing such to be their opinions, they would make this the groundwork of a religion which was to be proposed for acceptance to their countrymen, and to all nations.