having a wedding garment,"* is intended to reach the case of one who, to outward appearance, is sound in the Christian faith. For he accepts the invitation, which others refuse; and he takes his place among the guests. But he had neglected that holiness which is essential to the true Christian. The practical Antinomian is perhaps a rare character; yet, doubtless, it exists; and ecclesiastical history acquaints us that some have been found in almost every age, who have systematically defended this inconsistent heresy. So there are many moral disorders incompatible with the Gospel, as pride, hypocrisy, unsanctified temper, uncharitableness, covetousness, which may remain in a great measure undiscovered to the end. We cannot but admire the prophetic correction which such vices receive in this parable. With the same tendency as those before considered, it proceeds further; and shows its Author's foreknowledge of a truth, which we are reluctantly obliged to own is possible, that a man may deceive all by whom he is surrounded, and find his error only discovered at last to the Searcher of hearts.

V. But insight into the human heart is not the only excellence of these parables. It was an original mode of conveying instruction: for the few parables which previously existed admit of no comparison with the copiousness, variety, and force of those attributed to Jesus. It was a mode of conveying instruction peculiarly suitable to the object proposed. Allegories, it is generally acknowledged, strike the mind more

* Matt. xxii. 11-14.

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forcibly, and are more subtle and delicate in their operation than direct precepts. And these have every property which can fit them for the purpose which they were intended to serve. They are obvious and familiar, otherwise their moral would have been inaceessible to the understanding of those who must always of necessity form the most numerous class of hearers. Yet have they nothing that is low or mean, or unworthy of the source from which they profess to be derived. They can neither be uninteresting to the most learned reader, nor offend the most fastidious. Experience has proved the wisdom which dictated them. They have been commented upon during as many ages as Christianity has existed. Yet, from the abundance of illustration which they admit, every succeeding commentator finds in them the basis of some new argument, by which he may enforce the examination of the heart, and prepare it for the influence of religion. Can it be supposed that all these excellencies, directed to the same object and promoting the same end, could have resulted from an unauthorized imposture?

Impostors, moreover, must have been aware of the embarrassment necessarily arising from writings containing so much variety. Discourses, asserting generally the immortality of the soul or a future judgment, or conveying moral rules and religious exhortations, might have been framed with comparatively little hazard of detection or contradiction. But the Gospels, in the mixture of narrative, dialogue, and parabolic

language which they contain, betray an adventurous spirit, a boldness of enterprise, which must certainly have led impostors to their own refutation. Yet these writings have been vigilantly scrutinized and closely examined, both by friends and enemies, during eighteen centuries; and the experience of eighteen centuries has confirmed their authority, by bringing to light continually successive proofs of the knowledge of human nature which they display, and the influence over it which they pre-eminently exercise, under all circumstances of time and climate, and all varieties of character and education.

CHAPTER VII.

On the Wisdom manifested in the Christian Scriptures.

In the preceding chapter I have pointed to some proofs which seem to indicate more than human foreknowledge in the authors of the Christian Scriptures. But the proof of wisdom may be negative as well as positive. And it seems incredible that such writers as those of the New Testament must have been, if their works were the coinage of their own minds, should not have committed themselves by absurdities, and betrayed their cause by contradictions. This has has been done by all others who have ventured to set out on similar pretensions. But the Gospels have risen in esteem, in proportion as they have been longer the subject of examination, meditation, and commentary. Learning has not found them too simple, nor simplicity too learned. Those who have studied them longest, still derive fresh interest from the perusal. The critical and historical investigations of the last two centuries, in the only countries of the world which are capable of such researches, have left no subject unfathomed; philosophy has been busily employed: inquiry has been free, unlimited, and bold;

yet the work of men confessedly unlearned has not shrunk from philosophical scrutiny; and a composition. which must be a composition of falsehood, if it is not of divine authority, has stood the severest test of critical investigation."

A remarkable effect has resulted from this, even with regard to those who do not receive the Gospel as the guide of their own faith and principles. They admire and praise it. Its assailants are no longer found among those who are respectable for learning or intellect. They are chiefly persons too ignorant to understand the strongest proofs on which it rests, and certainly addressing their arguments to those who have none of the skill or knowledge which might be able to appreciate them.

Yet the New Testament is concerned with subjects, which, if its authors had been destitute of guidance, would have been likely to betray them into inconsistencies. Human liberty, and divine prescience; the beings of another world; the rewards and punish

It is a fine remark of Dr. Hey, Lectures, B. I. c. xiii. s. xiii : "We say the Gospel narratives must be real, because no one could invent such incidents, manners, sentiments, and expressions, as we find in them. The Evangelists at least were not improved enough to do it, in morality, or in philology. If this be a real argument, it is one, which will appear the more clearly, the more we improve in these particulars.”—“| "If as men improve, the Gospels continue to seem to contain good morality, the evidence of their excellence must be acknowledged to increase, because every improvement in the judges of this matter, must put the writings judged to a new trial."

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