Chapter 2

_Christian_--But who was its maker. You say you do not know. That is true, and, for ought you know, or can learn from its mechanism there might have been several makers connected with its origin. If you had stood by and seen it made, then you might have told me all about it. In that which you call the works of nature, neither you, nor I, nor any of our fellows, are instructed by actual observation consequent upon being present when they were made--we were not standing by when the heavens were made; so that source of information is closed up. There is now but one resort left to us--but one reasonable means of information. That is, the maker of all things must, necessarily, have told man that he created all these things. Then, with David, he could sing, "The heavens declare the glory of God." Man first learned from God that he was the creator of all things, for God alone could tell it. Gentlemen, the Christian is the only reasonable being upon the earth, and the only _fearless free-thinker_. The atheist, you see, is proved a fool, and the deist is no better. Think this over, then call again.

_Deists_--We will. _Good evening._

THOMAS PAINE

WAS NOT AN INFIDEL WHEN HE WROTE HIS WORK CALLED COMMON SENSE.

"In the early ages of the world, according to the Scripture chronology, there were no kings, the consequence of which was there were no wars. It is the pride of kings which throws mankind into confusion. Holland, without a king, hath enjoyed more peace for the last century than any of the monarchical governments of Europe. Antiquity favors the same remark, for the quiet and rural lives of the first patriarchs have a happy something in them which vanishes when we come to the history of Jewish royalty." (Common Sense, p. 12.)

Mr. Paine, did the God of the Bible approve of the Jewish royalty?

_Ans._ "As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest can not be justified on the equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of Scripture; for the will of the Almighty, as declared by Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disapproves of government by kings." * * * Near three thousand years passed away, from the Mosaic account of the creation, until the Jews, under the national delusion, requested a king. Till then their form of government (except in extraordinary cases, where the Almighty interposed) was a kind of republic, administered by a judge and the elders of the tribes. King they had none, and it was held sinful to acknowledge any being under the title but Lord of Hosts. * * * Monarchy is ranked in Scripture as one of the sins of the Jews, for which a curse in reserve is denounced against them. The history of that transaction is worth attending to. The children of Israel being oppressed by the Midianites, Gideon marched against them with a small army, and victory, through the divine interposition, decided in his favor. The Jews, elate with success, and attributing it to the generalship of Gideon, proposed making him a king, saying, "_Rule thou over us, thou and thy son, and thy son's son._" Here was temptation in its fullest extent; not a kingdom only, but an hereditary one. But Gideon, in the piety of his soul, replied, "_I will not rule over you; neither shall my son rule over you._ THE LORD SHALL RULE OVER YOU." (Common Sense, pp. 13 and 14.)

How many Gideons are there among leading infidels whose soul-piety would resist such a temptation as that? Say, was Thomas Paine an infidel when he wrote that?

"In short, monarchy and succession have laid, not this or that kingdom only, but the world in blood and ashes. 'Tis a form of government which the word of God bears testimony against, and blood will attend it." (Common Sense, p. 19.) "'But where,' say some, 'is the king of America?' I'll tell you, friend; he reigns above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the royal brute of Britain. Yet, that we may not appear to be defective in earthly honors, let a day be solemnly set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth, placed on the divine law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may know that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America _the law is king_." (Common Sense, p. 33.)

After quoting sundry passages of Scripture against a kingly form of government, Thomas Paine says:

"These portions of Scripture are direct and positive. They admit of no equivocal construction. That the Almighty hath here entered his protest against monarchical government is true, or the Scripture is false. And a man hath good reason to believe that there is as much of kingcraft as priestcraft in withholding the Scripture from the public in popish countries." (Common Sense, p. 15.)

From the foregoing _verbatim_ quotations it will be seen that Thomas Paine was no infidel until he PARTED WITH "COMMON SENSE," which bears date of February 14, 1776. Common Sense is of noble worth. We cheerfully concede to Thomas Paine all the honor due him for services rendered in behalf of our country while he was Thomas Paine the Quaker. He did nothing for our country after he avowed his infidelity that deserves being mentioned by any intelligent Christian.

A CLUSTER OF THOUGHTS,

GATHERED FROM JENYN'S INTERNAL EVIDENCES, WITH ADDITIONS AND MODIFICATIONS.

When the religion of Christ made its appearance it was entirely new, infinitely above, and altogether different from any other which had at any time entered into the mind of man. Its object was new. It was to prepare us with fitness of character, through a state of trial, for mutual association with the pure and lovely in the kingdom of heaven. This is presented in all the gospel, as the chief end of the Christian's life. Until Christ, no such reward was offered to mankind, nor means provided for its attainment.

Many of the philosophers in old times had ideas of a future state, but they were mixed with a great deal of uncertainty and misgivings.

Ancient legislators endeavored to inculcate the idea of rewards and punishments after death, to give sanction to their laws. This was the sole end in view, and when their laws were virtuous, it was a noble, a praiseworthy end. But the religion of Christ is related to the same object, brings it about; and, also, has a nobler end in view, and that is to prepare us here for a more noble society among the citizens of the kingdom of God in the great hereafter.

In all the older religions the good of the present was the direct, and the first object, but in the religion of Christ it is the second. The first great object of the gospel of Christ is to prepare us for the realities of eternity.

There is a great contrast between adhering to morality from the motive of present profit, in expectation of future reward, and living such a life as to qualify us for the realization of future happiness.

The character of those who are governed by these different principles is not the same. On the first principle, present utility, we may have mere moralists, men practicing simple justice, temperance and sobriety. On the second, we must add to those graces of moral nature faith in God, resignation to his will, and habitual piety. The first will make us very good citizens in a civil government, but will never be sufficient to make us Christians. So the religion of Christ insists upon purity of heart and benevolence, or charity, because these are essential to the end proposed.

"That the present existence is one of trial with reference to another state of being, is confirmed by all that we know in what is termed the course of nature. Probation is the only key that unfolds to us the designs of God in the history of human affairs, the only clue that guides us through the pathless wilderness, and the only plan upon which this world could possibly have been formed, or upon which its history can be explained."

This world was not formed upon a plan of unconditioned happiness, because it is overspread with miseries. Neither was it formed upon a plan of unconditioned misery, for there are many joys interspersed throughout the whole. It was not formed for the unconditional existence of both vice and virtue, for that is no plan at all, the two elements being, as we know, destructive of each other. By the way, in this very fact we find the grand necessity for the remedial scheme.

The mixture of vice and virtue, of happiness and misery, is a necessary result of a state of probation, trials and sufferings consequent upon offending or violating the will of heaven.

The doctrine of the religion of Christ, with its ultimate object and its ideas of God and man, of the present and the future life, and of the relations which these all bear to each other, was and is wholly unheard of until you come to the teachings of Christ. No other religion ever drew such pictures of the worthlessness of earthly-mindedness and of living merely for this present world. And no other ever set out such beautiful, lively and glorious pictures of heavenly-mindedness, along with the joys of a future world, nor such pictures of victory over death and the grave, nor of the last judgment, nor of the triumphs of the redeemed in that tremendous day. The personal character of the great author, Christ, is as new and peculiar to this religion as anything else that we can possibly name--"He spake as never man spake."

He is the only founder of a religion which is "unconnected with all human policy and government," and, as such, should not be prostituted to any mere worldly purposes whatever. Numa, Mohammed, and even Moses, blended their religious institutions with their civil, and by such means controlled their adherents. Christ neither exercised nor accepted such power. He rejected every motive which controlled other leaders, and chose those which others avoided. Power, honor, riches and pleasure were alike disregarded. He seemed to court poverty, sufferings and death.

Many impostors and enthusiasts have tried to impose upon the world with pretended communications from the world of spirits--some of them have died rather than recant; but no history is found to show one who made his own sufferings and death a necessary part of his plan and essential elements in his mission. This distinguishes the Savior of the world from all mere enthusiasts and imposters. He declared his death in all its minutia; with a prophet's vision he saw it, declared it was necessary, and voluntarily endured it; and he was neither a madman nor idiot. Look at his lessons, his precepts and his wonderful conduct, and then imagine him insane if you can. Still, if he was not what he pretended to be, he can be viewed in no other light; and yet under the character of a madman he deserves much attention on account of such sublime and _rational insanity_. There is no other person known in the world's history so _rationally_ and _sublimely_ mad.

In what madman's career can you find such a beautiful lesson as his instructions given upon the mount. What other leader enforced his precepts and lessons upon men's credulity with such assurances of reward as, "Come, ye blessed of my father! Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; I was naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee; or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in; or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick and in prison, and came unto thee? Then shall he answer and say unto them, Verily, I say unto you, inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

Before the appearance of Christ there existed nothing like the faith of Christ and Christianity upon the face of the earth. The Jews alone had a few of its types and shadows, but the great mystery of Christ had been kept hid since the world began. All the Gentile nations were wrapped up in the very worst idolatry, having little or no connection whatever with morality, except to corrupt it with the infamous examples of their gods. "They all worshiped a multitude of gods and demons, whose favor they sought by obscene and ridiculous ceremonies, and whose anger they tried to appease with the most abominable cruelties." With them, heaven was open only to legislators and conquerors, the civilizers and destroyers of mankind. This was the summit of their religion, and even this was limited to a few prodigies of genius and learning, which was but little regarded and understood by the great masses. One common cloud of ignorance and superstition involved them. At this time Christ came as a teacher; his appearance was like a rising sun, dispelling the darkness and blessing the earth with light and heat.

If any man can believe that the son of a carpenter, together with twelve of the meanest and most illiterate mechanics, unassisted by any superhuman wisdom and power, should be able to invent and promulgate a system of theology and ethics the most sublime and perfect, which all such men as Plato, Aristotle and Cicero had overlooked, and that they, by their own wisdom, repudiated every false virtue, though universally admired, and that they admitted every true virtue, though despised and ridiculed by all the rest of the world--if any man can believe that they were _impostors_ for no other purpose than the promulgation of truth, _villains_ for no purpose but to teach honesty, and _martyrs_ with no prospect of honor or advantage; or that they, as false witnesses, should have been able, in the course of a few years, to have spread this religion over the most of the known world, in opposition to the interests, ambition and prejudices of mankind; that they triumphed over the power of princes, the intrigues of states, the forces of custom, the blindness of zeal, the influence of priests, the arguments of orators, and the philosophy of the world, without any assistance from God, he must be in possession of more faith than is necessary to make him a Christian and continues an unbeliever from mere credulity. If the credulous infidel, whose convictions are without evidence and against evidence, should, after all, be in the right, and Christianity prove to be a fable, what harm could ensue from being a Christian? Are Christian rulers more tyrannical and their Christian subjects more ungovernable? Are the rich more insolent _when Christianized_? Are poor Christians most insolent and disorderly? Does Christianity make worse parents and worse children? Does it make husbands and wives, friends and neighbors less trustworthy? Does it not make men and women more virtuous and happy in every situation in life? If Christianity is a fable, it is one the belief of which retains men and women in a regular and uniform life of virtue, piety and devotion to truth. It gives support in the hour of distress, of sickness and death.

"If there were a few more Christians in the world it would be very beneficial to themselves and by no means detrimental to the public."

THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHRIST.

"He, who gave life to man at first, Can restore it when it is lost."

Our Savior claimed to be the Son of God, and put the validity of his claim on this, that he should die openly by crucifixion, be buried, and rise from the dead upon the third day. Among all the impostors known in earth's history there is not one instance of a _plot_ like this fact. A mere plot of this nature would be hard to manage. That the first part of this prophesy was fulfilled even our enemies admit. It has not been alleged by infidels of any note that the crucifixion was a fraud, and did not take place, and that Jesus, as a consequence, did not die.

The chief priests seem to have had considerable concern about the prediction of the resurrection. Why this? Was it because they had discovered in the person of Christ an impostor, a mere cheat? No; this alone would have caused them to utterly disregard the prediction of his resurrection. Those priests saw something in the character of Christ which caused them to fear the fulfillment of his prediction. What other person ever created such a concern about such an event? There is not a similar case in the world's history. What other dead person was ever known to create such a feeling as that which moved his enemies to confront him, if possible, in his rising power. Those priests had, doubtless, witnessed his miracles again and again. It is beyond all question true that they feared him in his death. If they had seen no wonderful power exerted during his life they certainly would have feared none after he was dead. The fear of the chief priests over the Savior's dead body is an insurmountable evidence of the mighty works which he accomplished during his life. Those priests addressed themselves to the Roman governor, and requested a guard placed around the tomb; three days and nights would settle the question, for the prediction would terminate on the third day. Pilate granted the request, and a guard was set to watch; they sealed the door of the sepulcher, placing the seal of the state upon the great stone. The object of the seal was, doubtless, for the satisfaction of all parties concerned in this matter.

It was a precaution against fraud. If the seal upon a door or box is broken we know at once that it has been meddled with. When Darius thrust Daniel among the lions he put his seal upon the door of the den, to satisfy himself and his court that no human hand had interfered for Daniel's delivery. When he came to the den and found his seal unbroken, he was satisfied. A seal thus used is of the nature of a covenant. If you deliver sealed writings to an individual his acceptance amounts to a covenant between you that the same shall be delivered just as they were received. If the seal is broken, it is a manifestation of attempted fraud. There is no special agreement needed in order to the existence of covenants by seals; it is an agreement which men are placed under by the laws of nations. The sealing of the sepulcher where the body of Jesus lay was to impose, by all the solemnities of the Roman state, obligations upon all the parties interested in the person of Christ. It was a grand effort on the part of the authorities to prevent any interference with the dead body.

When impostors are known they become odious, and are but little noticed. How was it with Christ? When the popular sentiment was that he was a prophet the priests and scribes sought his life, believing that his death would end his cause? When they and the people learned that he was an impostor (?) they thought him unsafe after he was dead.

The prediction of Christ that he would rise the third day was publicly known throughout Jerusalem; but why the chief priests should concern themselves so much about it as to take all the steps to prevent its fulfillment, is a puzzling question with infidels. Was it because they had detected him as a cheat and an impostor? No, this is an unreasonable conclusion. It must have been a secret conviction touching his mighty power. The seal was a proper check upon the guards; the Jews could have no other object in having it placed there. They were not so foolish as to think, that by this contrivance they would outstrip Providence.

Guards were set to watch, and, doubtless, did their whole duty. But what are sentinels when the power of Omnipotence is put forth? An angel of the Lord makes his appearance. The keepers saw him, and fell down like dead men. The angel rolled away the stone, and the conqueror came forth to live in the hearts of millions, and to live forevermore.

The disciples, receiving power from on high, soon make their appearance in Jerusalem, and boldly assert the fact of the resurrection. The murderers of the Savior were there. What do the priests do next? They had bribed the soldiers to tell a lie which was so base that it only needed to be told in order to be known as a lie. Next, they arrest the apostles; they beat them, they scourge them, and bid them shut their mouths, and insist that they shall say no more about this matter. They did not seem to regard them as liars and impostors, else they would doubtless have charged them with the fraud. They try to assassinate and murder these witnesses of the resurrection. They prevailed with Herod to put one of them to death; but they never seemed to think of charging them with stealing the body away. Their orator, Tertullus, could not have missed such a topic as imposition and fraud if any had been practiced. He did not seem to think of anything of the sort, but contented himself with the charge of sedition, heresy, and the profanation of the temple. Yet the very question of the resurrection was under consideration; for Festus tells Agrippa, that the Jews had "certain questions against Paul of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive." After this Agrippa heard Paul's testimony, and so far was he from suspecting imposition, that he said, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian."

Not long after the resurrection the apostles were taken before the council and sanhedrim of the Children of Israel. They make their own defense, a part of which is in these words: "The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree." The first impulse of the council was to slay them all; but Gamaliel, one of the council, stood up and related the history of several impostors who perished in former days, and said: "If this work be of men it will come to nought, but if it be of God ye can not overthrow it." He advised them to refrain from the men and let time tell the story. The tree shall be known by its fruits. The council acquiesced; they gave the apostles a whipping and let them go.

A resurrection is a thing to be ascertained by men's senses. We all know whether a man is dead by the same means by which we know whether a man is alive. There are those who claim that "a resurrection could not be proven by any amount of testimony, because of its being contrary to the course of nature." But this is mere prejudice and ignorance. First: Who can measure the extent of natural possibilities? Are they generally known? Is it a greater thing to give life to a body once dead than to a body that never was alive? The objection rests upon the thought that testimony should be respected only in such cases as seem to us possible, or in the ordinary course of nature. According to this, no amount of evidence could establish the fact that water freezes and becomes solid in a country where such is not the ordinary course of nature. Does a man's ability in discerning and his truthfulness in reporting depend upon the skill or ignorance of those who hear? We know facts that seem to be as much contrary to the course of nature as anything could possibly be. But, in all candor, I must claim that in appealing to the settled course of nature, in a case like the one under consideration, the question is referred not to the laws of evidence or maxims of reason, but to the prejudices of men and to their mistakes, which are many. Men form a notion of nature from what they see; so, under different surroundings, their notions about the course of nature will differ. The objection falls worthless at the feet of the INFINITE ONE. There is no greater difficulty in accounting for the fact that the dead live again than there is in accounting for the fact that they did live.

PUBLIC NOTORIETY OF THE SCRIPTURES.