11. It was impossible that any of these Messiah was to destroy the domination of sects should inculcate and promote true the former over the human race. From piety and virtue. The Pharisees, as our such opinions a monstrous system was Saviour often laid to their charge, disre- formed, widely different from the genuine garded internal purity, and, by a vain os- religion of the Jews. tentation and an austere life, sought for popular applause, and also ascribed more authority to ancient traditions and institutions than to the holy commandments of God. Matt. xxiii. 13, &c. The Sadducees gave a stimulus to iniquity and every lust, by discarding all future rewards and punishments. The Essenes, a fanatic and superstitious tribe, made piety to consist in holy indolence and a dislike of mankind, and thus they severed the ties of society. 12. When those who assumed the name and the prerogatives of the wise were involved in such darkness and such altercations, who can doubt that the religion and piety of the common people were in a low and debased state? They were sunk in deplorable ignorance of divine things; and they supposed that they rendered themselves acceptable to God, by their attention to sacrifices, ablutions, and the other ceremonies prescribed by Moses. From this two-fold source flowed those polluted morals and that profligate life which characterized the greater part of the Jews while Christ lived among them.1 Hence our Saviour compared the people to wandering sheep who had no shepherd, Matt. x. 6, xv. 24, and their teachers to blind men who attempt to guide others in a way of which they are themselves ignorant. Matt. xv. 14, John ix. 39. 13. To all these stains on the character of the Jews when Christ came among them, must be added the attachment of many of them to the oriental philosophy in regard to the origin of the world, and to the indubitable offspring of that philosophy, the Cabbala. That many Jews were infected with this system, both the sacred books of the New Testament and the carly history of the Christian Church prove undeniably. It is certain that the founders of several Gnostic sects were Jews. The followers of this philosophy must necessarily have differed from the other Jews in their views of the God of the Old Testament, and in their views of Moses, of the creation, and of the Messiah; for they held the creator of the world to be a different being from the supreme God, and believed that the 1 A striking passage, relative to the vicious lives of the Jews in our Saviour's time, occurs in Josephus, Bell. Jud. lib. x. cap. xiii. sec. 6-Schl. 2 See Milman's Hist. of Christianity, i. 64.-R. 3 Bee J. C. Wolf, Biblioth. Ebraica, tom. ii. lib. vii, cap. 1. sec. 9, p. 206. 14. The outward forms of worship established by Moses were less corrupted than the other parts of religion. Yet very learned men have observed, that various rites were introduced into the temple itself, which we may in vain search for in the divine ritual. It appears that the Jews, on becoming acquainted with the sacred rites of the neighbouring nations and of the Greeks and Romans, were so captivated with a number of the ceremonies practised in idol worship, that they did not hesitate to adopt them, and to add them as an ornament to the rites of God's appointment. 5 15. Various causes may be assigned for this great corruption of a nation which God had selected for his peculiar people. In the first place, their fathers had brought back with them from Chaldea and the adjacent countries, and had introduced into Palestine, many foolish and vain opinions, wholly unknown to the founders of the nation. And from the time of the conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great, the customs and dogmas of the Greeks were disseminated among the Persians, the Syrians, the Arabians, and likewise the Jews, among whom literature and philosophy had not before flourished. The excursions, also, which many Jews were accustomed to make into the neighbouring countries, especially into Egypt and Phoenicia, in pursuit of wealth, caused various errors and fancies of the pagan nations to spread among the Hebrews. And lastly, Herod the Great and his sons, and likewise the Roman procurators and soldiers, had undoubtedly introduced into the country many foreign institutions and pollutions. Other causes will readily occur to those acquainted with the Jewish history from the time of the Maccabees. 16. But notwithstanding their numerous faults, the people generally manifested the strongest attachment to the law of Moses, and were very careful that it should not be disparaged. Hence they erected throughout the country houses of worship, called in Greek, Synagogues, where the people assembled for prayer and to listen to the 4 See Spencer, De Leg. ritual. veter. Ebræorum, tom. ii. lib. iv. p. 1089, ed. Cantab. where he treats par ticularly of Jewish rites borrowed from the Gentiles, and not to be found in the Law of God. 5 See Gale, on Jamblichus De mysteriis Egyptiorum, p. 206. Nor does Josephus conceal this fact, Antiq. Jud. lib. ill. cap. vii. sec. 2. 6 Le Clerc, Epist. crit. ix. p. 250.- Schl. public expounders of the law. Schools also were established in the principal towns, where literary men instructed the youth in both divine and human knowledge. No one can doubt that these institutions had considerable influence to preserve the law inviolate, and to check in some degree the progress of wickedness. 17. The Samaritans, who worshipped on Mount Gerizim and lived in virulent hostility with their neighbours, the Jews, were equally oppressed and were in an equal degree the authors of their own calamities. It appears from the history of those times, that the Samaritans suffered as much as the Jews did from the machinations of factious men, though perhaps they had fewer religious sects. That their religion was less pure than the Jewish, Christ himself testifies. John iv. 22. Yet they seem to have had more correct views of the offices of the Messiah than the greater part of the Jews. John iv. 25. Though we are not to believe all that the Jews have said respecting their opinions, yet it is undeniable that the Samaritans adulterated the pure doctrines of the Old Testament with the profane errors of the pagans.3 18. The narrow limits of Palestine could not contain the very numerous nation of the Jews. Hence, when our Saviour was born, there was almost no considerable province which did not contain a large number of Jews, who lived by commerce and other employments. These Jews, in the countries out of Palestine, were protected against the violence and abuse of the inhabitants, by public laws and by the injunctions of the magistrates. Yet they were in most places exceedingly odious to the mass of people, on account of the remarkable singularity of their religion and customs. The special providence of the Most High is undoubtedly to be recognised in the dispersion of this people (who were the depositaries of the true religion or that which inculcates the worship of the one God) over nearly the whole world, that they might by their example, put superstition to shame, and might in a manner prepare the way for the Christian religion. CHAPTER III. THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST. 1. So many and so virulent diseases of the human race demanded the aid of a Divine physician. Therefore the Son of God himself descended from heaven, upon Palestine, in the close of the reign of Herod the Great; and joining himself to human nature, he appeared to mortals a teacher that could not err, and a sponsor at the court of heaven, as well as a king there. In what year this salutary light rose upon the world, the most persevering efforts of the learned have not been able fully to ascertain. Nor will this surprise us, if we consider that the earliest Christians knew not the day of their Saviour's birth, and judged differently on the subject. But of what consequence is it that we know not the year or day when this light first shone, since we fully know that it has appeared, and that there is no obstacle to our enjoying its splendour and its warmth? When a 2. An account of the birth, lineage, family, and parents of Christ is left us by the four inspired writers who give the history of his life. But they say very little respecting his childhood and youth. young child he was rescued from the cruelty of Herod, by the flight into Egypt. Matt. ii. 13. When twelve years of age, he disputed publicly in the temple, with the most learned Jewish doctors, upon religious sub1 See Vitringa, De Synagoga Vetere, lib. iii. cap. v. and lib. 1. cap. v.-vil. [Prideaux, Connection, &c.jects. Afterwards, till he was thirty years part. i. book vi. anno. 445.-Mur. The principal writers concerning the Samaritans are enumerated by Carpzovius, Critica Sacra Vet. Test. par. ii. cap. vi. p. 595. [The most valuable are p. 109, &c.; Morin. Antiq. Eccles. Orient.; Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, tome il. liv. ii. chaps. i.-xiii.; Reland, de Samaritanis, in his Diss. Miscell. par. ii,; and Baumgarten, Geschichte der Religionspart, p. 274, &c. -Schi. [See the entire section (sec. 18) on the Samaritans, in Gieseler's Lehrbuch der Kircheng. with its important quotations and references. The best translation of this valuable compendium is that by Dr. -Davidson in Clarke's Foreign Theological Library-R. 3 See Gronovius, Decreta Romana et Asiatica pro Judæis. Leyden, 1712, 8vo. [For a candid and faithful account of the state of the Jews, both in Palestine and out of it, the English reader is referred to Lardner's Credibility of the Gospel History, part i. vol. i. chap. ii.-vi.-Mur. [Much additional and more correct information is to be found in Gieseler, ubi sup. Davids. Trans. vol. i. pages 42-3. Besides Gronovius, the student ought also to consult Krebsius. Decreta Romanorum pro Judæir. Lips. 1768, 8vo.-R. Cellarius, Hist. Gentis Samarit. in his Diss. Acad. of age, he lived with his parents, as a dutiful and affectionate son. Luke ii. 51, 52. Divine wisdom has not seen fit to give us more particulars; nor is it certain, though many think it so, that Christ worked at the trade of his foster-father Joseph, who was a carpenter. Yet there were anciently 4 Most of the opinions of the learned concerning the year of Christ's birth are collected by Fabricius, Bibliographia Antiquar. cap. vii. sec. 9, p. 187. [Ample dissertations on both the year and the day of our Lord's nativity may be found in most of the Commentaries and Harmonies of the Gospels, both British and foreign. Perhaps the most satisfactory are the recent disquisitions in Gresswell's Dissertations on a Harmony of the Gospels. Oxford, 1880-4, 4 vols. 8vo; and in Browne's Ordo Saclorum. Lond. 1844, 8vo. In connexion with this point see also two Dissertations De Origine Festi Nativit. Christi. in Jablonski, Opuscula, ed. Te Water. Leyden, 1809, vol. iii. p. 317, &c.-R. some vain and deceitful persons, who ventured to fill up this obscure part of our Saviour's life with extravagant and ridiculous fables.1 whom he distinguished from the rest by the title of Apostles. They were plebeians, poor, and illiterate; for he would not employ the rich, the eloquent, and the learned, 3. In the thirtieth year of his age, he lest the success of their mission should be entered on the offices for which he came ascribed to natural causes and to human into the world. To render his ministry means. 1 Cor. i. 21. These he once sent more useful to the Jews, John, the son of forth among the Jews, during his lifetime a Jewish priest, a man grave and. venera- Matt. x. 7; but afterwards he retained ble in his whole manner of life, was com- them constantly near him, that they might missioned of God to proclaim the advent of witness all that he said or did. But, that the Messiah promised to the fathers. He the people might not lack religious instruccalled himself the precursor of the Messiah, tion, he commissioned seventy other disand, being full of holy zeal, exhorted the ciples to travel at large through Judea. Jews to amend their lives and purify their Luke x. i. hearts, and so prepare for the coming, or rather for the actual presence, of the Son of God; and those who professed repentance and reformation he initiated into the approaching kingdom of the Saviour, by immersion in the Jordan. Matt. iii. 2, &c.; John i. 22, &c. Jesus himself, before commencing his public ministry, chose to receive a solemn lustration in the waters of Jordan at the hands of John, that he might not appear to neglect any part of the Jewish law and religion.2 4. It is not necessary to enter here into a particular detail of the life and actions of Jesus Christ. All Christians know, that, for more than three years, amidst great trials and afflictions, and surrounded by snares and perils, he instructed the Jewish people in the counsels and purposes of the Most High; that he omitted nothing which could allure either the ignorant multitude or the well-informed; that he led a life so spotless and holy that no suspicion whatever could attach to him; and finally, that, by stupendous miracles, of a salutary and beneficial character, and such as accorded with the nature of his mission, he placed the truth of the religion he taught beyond all controversy. 6. The learned have inquired why the Saviour appointed just twelve, neither more nor less, to be apostles, and seventy to be his disciples; and various conjectures are offered on the subject. But as it is manifest from the words of Christ himself (Matt. xix. 28; Luke xxii. 30), that the number of the apostles had reference to the number of the tribes of Israel, there can scarcely be a doubt that he wished to indicate to the Jews that he was the supreme Lord and Pontiff over the whole Hebrew race, which was divided into twelve tribes. The seventy disciples were just equal in number to the senators composing the Sanhedrim or grand council of the nation; and this justifies the conjecture that Christ intended, by the choice of the seventy, to admonish the Jews that the authority of their Sanhedrim was now at an end, and that all power in relation to religious matters was vested in him alone.1 3 Mosheim has a long note in the parallel passage of his Com. de Rebus Chr. p. 49, the substance of which is this: The title Apostles was given to those principal men whom the high priests retained as their private counsellors, and whom they occasionally sent yearly tax for the temple or to execute other commisas their legates to the foreign Jews, either to collect the tom. ix. p. 124. Yet sions. We have not, indeed, a direct testimony at hand, 5. As this religion was to be propagated proving that the title of Apostles was given to such le gates of the high priests in the days of Christ. throughout the world, it was necessary for there is intimation of this in Gal. I. i.; and Jerome so him to select some persons to be his con-understood the passage. See his Comment. &c. Opp. stant and confidential companions, who should be able to state and testify to posterity and to the remotest nations, with the greatest confidence and authority, the events of his life, his miracles, and his whole system of doctrine. Therefore, from the Jews about him he chose twelve messengers, 1 See a collection of these fables by Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus N. Test. tom. 1. See, concerning John the Baptist, Cellarius, two Diss. de vita, carcere et supplicio Jo. Bapt. in his Diss. Acad. par. i. p. 169, and par. ii. p. 373. Ittig, Historia eccles, primi sæculi selecta capita, cap. vili. sec. 4; Witsius, Miscell. Sacra. tom. ii. p. 464, &c.Schl. [and Winer, Biblisches Realwörterbuch, article Johannes.-Mur. And that after the destruction of Jerusalem, the legates of the Jewish Patriarchs (who stood in the place of high priests) were called apostles, is fully proved. See Jerome, ubi supra, and Eusebius on Isa. cap. xviii. 2. See also Gothofredus, on Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 251, ed. Ritter; Petavius, on Epiphan. ad Hares. xxx.; Wesseling, De Archontibus Jud. p. 91; Walch (of Gotting.) Hist. Patriarch. Jud.; and Suicer, Thesaur. Eccles. tom. i. p. 477.-Mur. 4 There are two fictitious lists of the seventy disciples now extant, which are falsely ascribed to Hippolytus and to Dositheus. They may be seen in various works; e. g. Fabricius, Lux Evangelii, &c. pag. 115-118; and annexed to the books De Vita et Morte Mosis, ed. Fabricius; and in Ittig, Hist. Eccles. primi sæcul. p. 472. That no sort of credit is due to them, is shown by Ittig, ubi supra; by Blondell, De Episcopis et Presbyt. p. 93, and by others. Euseblus, Hist. Eccles. i. 12, expressly declares that no catalogue of the seventy disciples was to be found anywhere in his day. The two lists nearly agree, and are evidently 7. Jesus himself gave instruction to none but Jews; nor did he allow his disciples to travel among other nations, as teachers, while be continued on earth. Matt. x. 5, 6; xv. 24. Yet the extraordinary deeds performed by him leave no room to doubt that his fame very early extended to other nations. There are respectable writers who state, that Abgarus, King of Edessa, being dangerously sick, sent a letter to Christ, imploring his assistance; and that he not only wrote an answer to the king, but also sent him his picture.' It is the prevailing opinion, that not only the letters of Christ and Abgarus, but likewise the whole story were fabricated. I would by no means venture to defend the redit of the letters; but I see no very weighty reasons for rejecting altogether the whole story. knew that all the objects of his abode among them were accomplished, voluntarily submitted to be nailed to a cross, on which he yielded up his spotless soul to God. He now 10. On the third day after his burial, he re-assumed the life which he had voluntarily laid down; and showing himself alive, he made it manifest that men no longer owed anything to divine justice. continued forty days with his disciples, employing the time very much in giving them instruction. To his enemies he would not appear visibly: among other reasons, one was, that he knew those unprincipled men who had before accused him of sorcery, would impudently affirm that it was merely a spectre, bearing his likeness and produced by the power of the devil, which had appeared. At length, in the presence of his 8. No small part of the Jewish people disciples, he ascended up to heaven, after were excited by the demonstrations of commissioning them to preach the Gospel divine authority in Christ, to revere him to all nations. as the Son of God; but the leading men, especially the Pharisees and the chief priests, whose vices and crimes he freely reproved, plotted against his life, being fearful of losing their honours and privileges if Christ should continue publicly to preach. For a long time the machinations of these ungodly men were ineffectual. But at last, his ungrateful disciple, Judas, disclosing the place of his master's nocturnal retirement, he was seized by soldiers at the command of the Sanhedrim, and ordered to be tried for his life. CHAPTER IV. On endowments, was joined the knowledge of various foreign languages, which was indispensable to them in giving instruction to different nations,3 and also a firm reliance THE PROSPEROUS EVENTS OF THE CHURCH. 1. WHEN Jesus was seated at the right hand of the eternal Father, the first proof he gave of his majesty and power was by the effusion of the Holy Spirit upon his disciples and friends on earth, on the fiftieth day after his death. Acts ii. 1, &c. receiving this celestial gift and teacher, they were freed from all their former ignorance and blindness of mind, and endued with astonishing alacrity and power to fulfil the 9. He was first charged before the Jew-duties of their office. With these mental ish high priest and senate, with having violated the law, and blasphemed the majesty of God. Thence he was dragged to the tribunal of Pilate, the Roman procurator, and there accused of sedition and of treason against Cæsar. Neither of these 3 The nature of this "gift of tongues" has been very accusations could have satisfied fair and variously interpreted by divines and historians. summary of these views may be seen in Townsend's upright judges. But the clamours of the New Test. chronologically arranged, in loc. taken chiefly people, which were instigated by the ir- from Kuinoel, Comment. in lib. N. Test. iv. 43, &c.; religious priests, compelled Pilate, though Biblio. Græca, iv. 760, &c. See also Neander, Gesch. reluctantly, to pass sentence of death upon. Pfunzung, u. Leitung, &c. i. 10; translated in him. IIc, as he had come into our world to make expiation for the sins of men, and made up by collecting together. without the least judgment, nearly all the names of Christians mentioned in the New Testament. and particularly in the salutations of Paul.-Mur. 1 Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xviii. [Here is the carliest notice of these Letters. For the earliest history of the picture, seo Evagrius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxvii. See the Letters themselves, with notes in] Fabricius, Codex Apocryphus, tom. i. p. 317. See Busnage, Histoire des Juifs, tom. i. chap. xvii. p. 500; Bayer, Historia Edessena et Orroëna, lib. iii. p. 104; Asseman, Biblioth. Orient. Clem. Vat. tom. i. p. 554. [As to the picture, which is still preserved, and shown at Rome, Beausobre has fully exposed the fable in his Diss. des Images de mine divine, in the Biblioth Germanique, tom. xviii. p. 10,&c. Mosheim, De Rebus Christ. &c. p. 73.-Mur. A but a fuller list is given in Harles's edition of Fabricius, Clarke's Biblical Cabinet, Nos. 45 and 46. The English reader may also consult Middleton's Essay on the Gift on the promise of Christ, that God would pagan philosophers, with their own weapons, aid them, as often as should be necessary, by miracles.1 2. Relying on this divine assistance, the disciples, in accordance with the Saviour's injunctions, Luke xxiv. 47; Acts i. 8; xiii. 46, first laboured to convert the Jews to Christ. Nor was this labour without effect, for many thousands of them soon became Christians. Acts ii. 41; iv. 4. Next they proceeded to the Samaritans, which also their commission required. Acts i. 8 And here, too, they gathered a Christian church. Acts viii. 14. Lastly, after spending many years at Jerusalem, and regulating and confirming the churches of Christ in Palestine and the neighbouring regions, they travelled abroad among various nations, their labours being everywhere attended with the greatest success. 3. The first care of the apostles after the Saviour's ascension was, to complete the number of twelve apostles established by Christ, by electing a more worthy person to the place of Judas, who had laid violent hands on himself. Therefore, the little company of Christ's servants at Jerusalem being assembled, two men, the most noted for their piety and faith in Christ, Barnabas and Matthias, were proposed as the most worthy of that office. One of these, Matthias, being designated by lot, as it is commonly supposed, or elected by the majority of the votes of the persons present, was constituted the twelfth apostle. Acts ii. 15, &c.3 4. As these twelve ambassadors of Christ were all of them plain, illiterate men, and as the Christian community, now in its infancy, needed a man who could attack and vanquish the Jewish doctors and the 1 In his Comment. de Rebus Christ. ante C. M. p. 76, Mosheim states, that he does not account the power of working miracles among the supernatural gifts; because such power neither was nor could be conferred on men, omnipotence alone being able to work miracles: so that faith to pray for them, and to expect them at the hands of God, was all that the Holy Ghost actually imparted to the apostles.-Mur. 2 It appears from the book of Acts, that the apostles, or at least most of them, remained in and near Jerusalem, for several years after the ascension; but how long they continued together is uncertain. There was anciently a tradition which Eusebius states (Hist. Eccles. v. 18) on the authority of Apollonius, a writer of the second century, as does Clemens Alex. (Strom. vi. cap. v.) from a spurious work, Prædicatio Petri, that the Saviour enjoined upon his apostles not to leave Jerusalem till twelve years after his ascension. About so long they probably continued there; and their being divinely guided in most of their movements might give rise to the tradition.-Mur. 3 Mosheim has a long noto in the parallel place in his Comment. de Rebus Christ. &c. pag. 78-80, in which he aims to prove, that dwкav KAŃрous avrov, in Acts 1. 26, signifies they gave their votes; and not, as it is commonly understood, they cast their lots. But his interpretation is very generally rejected.-Mur. Jesus Christ himself, a little after the ap pointment of Matthias, by a voice from heaven, created a thirteenth apostle, namely, Saul, who afterwards assumed the name of Paul; a man who had been a most virulentenemy of the Christians, but who was well skilled in the Jewish learning and not ignorant of the Grecian. Acts ix. 1, &c. To this truly admirable man, whether we consider his courage, his force of mind, or his fortitude and patient perseverance in labours, how much the Christian world is indebted, is manifest from the Acts of the Apostles and his own Epistles. 5. The first of all the Christian churches founded by the apostles, was that of Jerusalem; and after the form and model of this, all the others of that age were constituted. That church, however, was governed immediately by the apostles, to whom the presbyters, and the overseers of the poor, or the deacons, were subject. Though the people had not withdrawn themselves from the Jewish worship, yet they held their own separate meetings, in which they received instruction from the apostles and presbyters, offered up united prayers, celebrated, in the sacred supper, the memorial of Jesus Christ, of his death, and the salvation he procured; and then manifested their mutual love, partly by their liberality to the poor, and partly by those temperate repasts which from their design were called love-feasts. Acts ii. 42. Among the vir tues for which this primitive church of Christ was distinguished, their care of the poor and needy is most conspicuous. For the rich liberally supplied the wants of all the brotherhood, and with such promptitude and tenderness that Luke says, they had all things common. Acts ii. 44; iv. 32. But it is clear from the expressions used by Peter, in Acts v. 4, as well as from other considerations, that the declaration of Luke should not be understood, as it generally has been, of their possessing in common, but only of their using in common. 4 Mosheim understood Acts ii. 42, as descriptive of the several parts of the ordinary public worship of these primitive Christians, rather than of their Christian character and conduct in general. See his Comment. de Rebus Christ. pag. 113-116. If Mosheim's interpretation of that text is erroneous, as most interpreters think it is, this account of the mode of worship in the apostolic church, rests on a slender basis.-Mur. 5 "It is an ancient opinion, though not older than the fourth century, that in the church of Jerusalem there was such a community of goods, as existed among the ancient Essenes and now among monks; but this opinion is destitute of any solid foundation, resting solely on the declaration of Luke, that they had all things common. See my Diss. de vera natura com munionis bonorum in eccl. Hieros, which is the Arst in the second volume of my Dissert. ad hist. eccl tinentes."-Mosheim, de Reb. Christ. &c. p. 118. per |