But I foresaw that unbelievers were certain to make a very dangerous use of those principles unless they were carefully guarded; and this was my sole reason for discussing them. The opinion which I then formed has since turned out only too true, for the author of "Supernatural Religion," in his third volume, which appeared shortly after the publication of my own Lectures, has used the principles in question for the purpose of throwing discredit on the truth of the Resurrection of Our Lord. I therefore laboured to show that these three principles, instead of helping to account for the belief in it on the supposition that the primitive followers of Jesus mistook the creations of their own disordered imaginations for realities, and in consequence fancied that certain visionary appearances were an actual Resurrection, would have a contrary effect.

In conclusion, I have only to observe that nothing is further from my wishes than to narrow up the conception of a Christian to one who holds my own exclusive views. On the contrary, I am fully prepared to own as such every one who accepts St. Paul's very simple definition of Christianity. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus (.e. that He is the Messiah) and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

LONDON, June, 1879.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I.

THE ORDER OF THE CHRISTIAN ARGUMENT; ITS NATURE

AND EXTENT.

Introduction, 1. The Christian revelation progressive according to the

analogy of the divine working in nature, 3. Necessity of accommodating our

evidential position to our increasing light, 6. The question-What constitutes

the inner life of Christianity, as distinct from the vehicle through which it has

been communicated, considered, 7. The essence of the Christian revelation

consists not in a body of formulated dogmatic truth, but in a personal history,

12. The bearing of this on the limits of the Christian argument, 14. The

relation in which theology stands to revelation, 16. Various points which are

eagerly discussed among theologians extraneous to the Christian argument, 20.

The moral miracles of Christianity constitute the most important attestation to

its divine character, 25. Facts capable of verification ought to be placed in the

forefront of the Christian argument, 29. Reasons for assigning a primary

place to the argument from the moral aspects of Christianity, and a secondary

one to that from miracles, 30.

SUPPLEMENT I.

EVIDENCE AFFORDED BY THE

THE

WRITINGS OF THE NEW

TESTAMENT THAT THE ESSENCE OF THE CHRISTIAN REVELA-

TION CONSISTS IN THE OBJECTIVE FACT OF THE INCARNATION.

The affirmations of St. John in his first epistle, 39. Those in his Gospel, 41.

Our Lord's direct assertions on the same subject, 42. Further proof from the

numerous incidental references made to it by St. Paul, 44. St. Paul's direct

assertions on the same subject, 45. Christianity not an afterthought for the

purpose of repairing the failure of God's creative plan, 47. The effects of the

incarnation not limited to the human race, 49. The views propounded on this

subject in the epistle to the Hebrews, and in the Apocalypse, 50. The

testimony of the epistle of St. Peter, and of the Acts of the Apostles, 51.

The views of the writers of the Synoptic Gospels in strict harmony with those

of the other writers of the New Testament, 53.

SUPPLEMENT II.

THE CONCEPTION OF A MIRACLE INVOLVES NEITHER A SUSPEN-

SION OF THE FORCES NOR A VIOLATION OF THE LAWS OF

NATURE.

The confusion introduced into the controversy about miracles by the use of

ambiguous terms, 54. The distinction between the laws and the forces of nature,

57. The modus operandi of God in the performance of a miracle ought not to

form a portion of its definition, 59. Importance of the question, whether

under the term "nature," man and his free agency are meant to be included, 61.

Man capable of modifying the order of nature by imparting a new direction to

its forces, 63. The laws of nature not violated, nor its forces suspended by the

performance of a miracle, 65. The distinction between God's modus operandi

in His ordinary providence and in performing miracles, unknown in the

Old Testament, 68. The New Testament does not represent the forces of

nature as suspended during the performance of miracles, 69. The Theism of

the Bible represents God not as standing external to the Universe, but as

immanent in its forces, 71.

LECTURE II.

THE SUPERHUMAN ACTION OF JESUS CHRIST VERIFIABLE IN THE
HISTORY OF THE PAST AND THE FACTS OF THE PRESENT.
The principles on which the argument is based, 73. The self-evidencing

character of Our Lord's person the highest evidence of his divine mission, 75.

His own direct affirmations on this subject as reported in the Fourth Gospel, 76.

Similar principles underlie his teaching in the Synoptics, 80. Many of his

miracles not performed for purposes directly evidential, 81. The views

propounded in the epistles of St. John and St. Paul as to the self-evidencing

character of Our Lord's divine person, 82. The evidential value assigned to

miracles in the Acts of the Apostles, and in the epistle to the Hebrews, 83.

Certain classes of miracles wrought rather for providential than for evidential

purposes, 85. The supernatural gifts, how far evidential, 86. General summary

of results, 88. The superhuman action of Jesus Christ in history a fact

capable of verification, 89. The argument concisely stated, 90. Christianity

based on a personal history— the unique character of this fact, 92. The mighty

influence which this history has exerted on mankind, 93. The source of this

influence, 95. The testimony of history to the solitary grandeur of Jesus

Christ-Mr. Lecky's admissions, 96. Jesus Christ the solitary character in

history who for eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an

impassioned love, 98. He is the one Catholic man capable of acting on every

condition of human nature, 99. He alone is the embodiment of holiness in

his human life, and its perfect example, 101. He alone of men is capable of

exerting a moral and spiritual power for the regeneration of mankind, 102. His

energetic action in the moral and spiritual worlds testified to by the history of

the past, and the facts of the present, 104. The Church amidst its corruptions

has found in the person of its Founder an ever-enduring principle of regenera-

tion, 106. The alternative propounded by unbelief to the acceptance of

Christianity, 108.

SUPPLEMENT I.

THE EVIDENTIAL VALUE OF MIRACLES AS AFFECTED BY ANSWERS

TO PRAYER.

The analogy between special providences and miracles, 109. The difficulty

of discriminating between miracles and answers to special prayers, which

involve modifications in the action of the forces of the material universe, 110.

A series of such answers in favour of a particular person would constitute a

onμeiov, 111. The case of the Bristol Orphan Asylum, 112. How far such

answers to prayer affect the value of miracles as the sole attestations of a

divine Revelation, 115.

SUPPLEMENT II.

MIRACLES WROUGHT IN THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE NOT THE
EXCLUSIVE ATTESTATION OF OUR LORD'S DIVINE MISSION.
Summary of the views propounded in the Lecture on this subject, 116. The

opposite view which affirms that certain doctrinal statements contained in

the New Testament can only be accepted as true, on the evidence of physical

miracles, 118. The positions of Professor Mozley considered, 119. Our Lord's

affirmations respecting himself to be accepted on the ground of his perfect

truthfulness, and the adequacy of his knowledge, 122. While such assertions

would have been incredible on the simple affirmation of an ordinary man, Our

Lord was not an ordinary man, but his human life contained throughout a

manifestation of the divine, 124. Our Lord's appeal to his sinlessness as an

evidence of his veracity, 125. The change in the evidential value of miracles

through our inability to witness them, and the consequent difficulties attending

their proof, 126. The Mission of John the Baptist affirmed to have been divine,

yet destitute of a miraculous attestation, 127.

LECTURE III.

THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE TEACHING OF CHRISTIANITY AND

THAT OF THE PHILOSOPHERS VIEWED EVIDENTIALLY.

The truth of Our Lord's affirmation that he is the Light of the World, and
the Light of Life, verified by eighteen centuries of history, and verifiable
in the facts of the present, 130-132. The continuity of the moral world—
its changes take place in conformity with moral laws, 133. The teaching
of Christianity involves a break in the continuity of the chain of moral
causes, 134. Such a break in continuity a proof of the presence of the