096. CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION - IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT, AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.

CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTION - IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT, AND METHOD OF INVESTIGATION.

“I can scarcely think any pains misspent that brings me solid evidence of the great truth, that the Scripture is the word of God, which is, indeed, the great Fundamental.” - BOYLE. IS CHRISTIANITY TRUE, OR IS IT NOT? However this question may be decided, it must be acknowledged by every reflecting mind that it is an inquiry of the greatest importance. If it be true, it involves consequences in comparison with which all things else dwindle into insignificance. Upon it depends the weal or woe of every accountable intelligence of the human race, and that not only in this life, but for an endless eternity to come.

If this assumption be correct, which we think none can doubt, it necessarily follows that no intelligent person can refuse or neglect to bestow upon this great question a careful and serious consideration. To ignore or pass by this subject, without calm and honest investigation, is to act the part of folly and madness. While there is even a possibility that Christianity may be true, it is blindness to our most important interests to fail to use all the means in our power to arrive at a satisfactory and correct conclusion on the question.

“Truth is mighty, and will prevail.” No principle is more general in virtuous minds than the love of truth. It is the object of the philosopher’s most earnest search, and of the Christian’s warmest admiration. All sects and parties, whether in philosophy, science, politics, or religion, claim to have truth on their side, and do homage at her shrine. But in no department of knowledge does the importance of truth become so truly great, as in reference to religion. As one has expressed it: “If revelation be true, it is tremendously true;” but if it be false, it is a gross and unmitigated falsehood - a wicked imposition! In the investigation of truth on this, as on all other subjects, we must begin with first principles, and reason upward from what we know to what we do not know. Aside from supernatural or divine influence, all our knowledge must be derived through the medium of external sensation or internal consciousness. By the former, we know that we have material bodies,, and are surrounded, by material objects, and no reasoning can strengthen or weaken our conviction on the subject. By the latter, we know when we love or hate, are joyful or angry, happy or miserable, and no reasoning can change these convictions. In discussing the claims of Christianity, we propose to begin with such first principles, self-evident truths, or obvious axioms, as none can question without renouncing the dictates of common sense, and then to argue upward from one truth to another, as the several links appear to hang together in a connected chain.

Truth itself is a grand harmonious system, the parts of which, like a seamless garment, constitute one united whole, and can only be separated by violence. As in mathematical science, the certainty of the solution of a problem is only apparent after the several parts of the demonstration have been viewed in their separate state, and their necessary dependence and connection clearly seen; so, in examining the evidences of Christianity, by beginning at the foundation with first principles and admitted truths, and tracing the argument with patience and care through its various stages, we shall be conducted, if not to absolute mathematical certainty, leaving all doubt impossible, at least to a clear, firm, and satisfactory conviction, leaving all doubt unreasonable and criminal. The evidences of Christianity is a subject exhaustless in its nature. From the earliest ages of the Christian Church to the present period, it has employed the pens of many of the ripest scholars and most profound reasoners, who have bequeathed to the world and the Church numerous unanswerable treatises in defense of divine revelation. But these writers, while they have occupied similar ground in regard to the main arguments, have generally varied in their mode of presenting them. Some have attached most importance to one class of arguments, and some to another. Some have relied mainly on what are termed the external evidences, and others on the internal. Perhaps no two authors have presented precisely the same arguments; and certainly no one ever pretended that he had exhausted the theme. Indeed, Christianity is a great subject around which cluster an almost infinite number and variety of proofs. Arguments in its favor, and many of them of great force, may be drawn, from almost every page of the Bible, as well as from every chapter in the history of the world and of the Church, and from every day’s experience of every saint and of every sinner. The developments of each revolving day, by the presentation of accumulating evidence of the conformity of the character and wants of man to the statements of the Bible, and of the continued fulfillment of prophecy, but add to the ever-swelling amount of testimony, that Christianity is true. Hence it is obvious, notwithstanding the much that has been written upon the subject, that all the evidences of Christianity have never been presented.

While it is true that the range of argument on this subject is so vastly extensive, it must also be admitted that the leading evidences of Christianity are essentially the same in all the treatises of our numerous and able authors. Therefore but little, in this department, can now be presented entirely new. But while the leading argument is substantially the same in all, there is something in the style and manner of each writer variant from that of all others; and this diversity may serve a valuable purpose. The phase in which an argument is presented will not strike all readers in the same way. An argument, as exhibited by one writer, may to many persons seem of little force, while the identical argument, presented in the form and dress peculiar to another author, may appear very conclusive and satisfactory. In the following pages, we do not propose a complete exhibition of every thing pertaining to the evidences of Christianity, for the subject is so extensive that, instead of a single treatise, volumes would be required to present it fully in all its departments and phases. What we aim to accomplish is, to furnish a clear, comprehensive, and concise view of the leading arguments on the subject, in a form no less comprehensive and satisfactory than the treatises heretofore published, yet more simple and perspicuous, and better adapted to the comprehension, and more impressive upon the memory of young persons and ordinary readers. Our object is, as far as possible, to free the subject from intricacy and perplexity, and render its examination not only an instructive but a pleasing exercise. In a word, our great aim is so to portray the important and staple evidences of Christianity that they may be easily and clearly comprehended the heart.