John xvi. 12, 13.
I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, shall come, he will guide you into ALL TRUTH: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and HE WILL SHEW YOU THINGS TO COME.
There is scarce a page in the Gospels, which to an attentive reader may not afford a striking proof of their divine original.
We have an instance in the words before us: in which, Jesus, now about to leave the world, tells the disciples, that he had many things to say unto them, which were not proper for their ear at this time, but that these, and all other necessary truths should hereafter be imparted to them by a divine spirit, to be sent from heaven to be their guide and instructor: that, from him, they should learn what, for the present, he forbore to communicate to them, of his views and purposes in the religion, they were to teach mankind; nay, and that this divine Spirit of truth would shew them things to come.
Now Jesus, I suppose, whatever else may be thought of him, will be readily acknowledged to have been, at least, a discreet and wise man: for without a very high degree of discretion and wisdom, it was plainly impossible for him to do the great things, he did; I mean, to be so successful, as he was, in imposing a new faith and religion on mankind. They, who take Christianity for an imposture, must confess, at least, that it was an imposture, artfully contrived, and ably conducted: otherwise, the effects of it could never have been, what we see they are.
But would any man, acting on the principles of human wisdom, only, have given an assurance of this kind (an assurance, too, that seemed not necessary) to those whom he thought fit to entrust with the care of his imposture, when yet he must certainly know that he could not make good to them what he had promised; and when they, to whom such assurance was given, might easily, and, as he must foresee from his knowledge of human nature, would certainly abuse it, to selfish ends of their own, not consistent with his, and to the hurt of that very cause, which he wanted to promote?
Say, that he had, only, told them—this divine spirit shall instruct you in many things concerning my religion, which I have not, myself, thought fit to reveal to you—would not this general promise have opened a door to all sorts of fraud, or extravagance? And could he reasonably expect that any well-concerted scheme of religion, such as was likely to make its fortune in the world, would be delivered and established by men, who were commissioned to enlarge his system, at pleasure, and as their various passions, or fancies, might suggest? And all this, on the same authority with that which he had claimed to himself?
Suppose, they were honest, or, faithful to him, that is, disposed to teach nothing but what should agree to their Master’s doctrine, yet who could answer for their skill or judgment? And, if they were dishonest, or unfaithful, what ruin must not this license of building on his doctrine, have brought on the structure, he had already raised?
When Mark Antony was allowed to forge a will for Cæsar, we know the use he made of that liberty. But had he been a better man, than he was, and inclined to give out that only for Cæsar’s will, which might probably seem to be so, yet his capacity to make a will for Cæsar, in all respects uniform, and consistent with that great man’s known views and character, might well be called in question, notwithstanding the whole contrivance depended on himself; much more, if the arduous task had been entrusted to eleven persons, besides, of different abilities and dispositions.
Still, the case is more desperate, than we have hitherto supposed. Besides a liberty of adding what new consistent doctrines, they pleased, to the doctrine of Jesus, the disciples have a greater and more dangerous power committed to them, a power of prophesying, or foretelling things to come.
To see how the case stands on this last supposition, consider, 1. What is implied in this PROPHETIC power. 2. What abuses are likely to be made of such an assumed power by ANY men whatsoever. And, 3. What peculiar abuses of it were to be expected from SUCH men, as the disciples. Consider, I say, these three particulars, and then, upon the whole, determine for yourselves, whether any man of ordinary prudence would have commissioned his followers to exercise such a power; or, if he had done so, and had been an impostor, whether the event could possibly have been what it clearly was.
1. The prophetic power, implies an ability of looking into the future history of mankind; of foreseeing what revolutions shall happen in states and kingdoms; what shall be the issue of depending wars, or counsels: what the prosperous, or adverse fortune shall be of public, or private persons; of those, who have any authority over us, or connexion with us; of individuals, or collective bodies of men; of friends, or enemies. Whoever has this extraordinary power committed to him, or who thinks he has, has the characters of all men at his mercy; can blast the reputation of, the wisest and best men, by a charge of follies and crimes, not yet committed; or can raise the credit of the worst and weakest, by covering their future life with wisdom and honour. He can intimidate the greatest men by announcing their disgrace and ruin; or exalt the meanest by bringing out to view their successes and triumphs. In a word, he can speak peace or war, fame or infamy, life or death, to any state or person, against whom he thinks fit to level this powerful engine of inspiration.
And as all men, so all times, are equally within his reach. He can pursue the objects of his love or hate through ages to come; and can excite hopes and fears in the breasts of those, who are not to appear on the stage of the world, till many centuries after he has left it, and when himself has nothing to apprehend, let his predictions take what turn they will, from the shame of detection.
Such then being the nature of this mighty privilege to foretell things to come, you cannot but see
2. In the next place, how liable this power is to be abused by ANY men whatsoever, who have a pretence to assume it.
Make, if you will, the most favourable supposition, that these pretended prophets are able and learned: But then, what endless schemes of fraud, of policy, of imposture, may ye not expect from the dextrous management of this faculty! Revolve with yourselves the history of ancient divination, or modern prophecy, when lodged in the hands of artful and designing men; and see, what portentous abuses must needs arise from this commission, and yet what certain disgrace and confusion to the memory of those, to whom it is given.
What blessings will not men, entrusted with this convenient foresight of futurity, lavish on their own friends, or party! And what curses, what terrors, equally belied in the event, will they not scatter over the persons or affairs of rivals and enemies, for the gratification of a present passion or interest!
Suppose them cool enough to distrust the reality of their inspiration, yet the temptation, to make the pretence of it subservient to their own views, would be almost irresistible: Or suppose them, on the other hand, to prophesy with good faith, this genuine enthusiasm might enable them to act their part more naturally indeed, but, in the end, not more successfully.
Had then the Apostles been, each of them, as provident and wise, as their Master himself, and as much persuaded of their own inspiration, as he could desire them to be, they would not, we may be sure, have been encouraged by him, if an impostor only, to think themselves possessed of a prophetic power, when it must have turned to the ruin of his cause, on every supposition; I mean, equally on the supposition of its being regarded as a real or pretended, power; that is, whether the Apostles were guided by the views of a dishonest policy themselves, or were the honest dupes of their Master’s policy. But there is
3. Still more to be said on the improbability of a wise man’s giving such an assurance to men qualified and circumstanced, as the Apostles were, in other words, to men of their PECULIAR character and situation.
1. The character of the Apostles, was that of plain, uneducated, illiterate men; men, totally unacquainted with the world, and with those arts, which are necessary to conduct a great design with ability and success; men, of good sense, indeed, and of honest minds, but, from their singular simplicity, only qualified to report what they had seen or heared, and by no means provident or skillful enough to round and complete a scheme, but half-disclosed by its author, and that half delivered incidentally and by parcels to them, and ill understood.
Yet to these men, Jesus declares, that much was wanting to the integrity of that religious system, which they were appointed to teach: and that all defects in it were to be supplied not by himself, but by a divine spirit, who should hereafter descend upon them, and LEAD THEM INTO ALL THE TRUTH[195]; nay, who should not only instruct them in such parts of his religion, as he had imperfectly, not at all, explained, but should, further, open to their view I know not what scenes of futurity, and SHEW THEM THINGS TO COME.
These magnificent promises, you see, were likely to make a deep impression on the rude minds of the disciples; half-astonished, we may suppose, at the idea of such superior privileges, and more than half-intoxicated with the conceit of that pre-eminence, which those privileges were to bestow.
Their implicit faith, too in a beloved and revered Master, would incline them to expect, with assurance, the completion of these promises: And thus, every principle, whether of simplicity, vanity, or credulity, would make their presumption violent, and leave it without controul.
2. If we turn, next, to the situation of these men, buoyed up with such exalted hopes and expectations, we shall find it apt to create a fanaticism, which, of itself, might drive them, in the absence of their politic Master, into any excess. These simple, over-weening men were, at the same time, poor, friendless, despised, insulted, persecuted; exposed to every injury from the number, power, and malice of their enemies, as Jesus indeed, had honestly forewarned them; yet stung with the desire of founding a temporal kingdom (contrary, it must be owned, to his express declaration) and of rising themselves to the first honours of it. Could any thing flatter their ambition more, than to be told that they had the modelling of their own scheme left to themselves, under the cover of a supernatural direction? Or, could any thing gratify their resentments, all on fire from ill usage, more effectually, than to be assured that the fates of their adversaries, all the secrets of futurity, lay open to their view? How oft has oppression turned faith into fanaticism, and made prophets of those, whom it only found zealots! And do we think that secular ambition, concurring with religious zeal, in the like circumstances, could have any other issue; especially, when the prophetic impulse was looked for by such zealots, and, on the highest authority, actually engaged to them? Or can we, who see the probability, the certainty, of this consequence, conceive so meanly of Jesus, considered in the view of a wise man only, as to imagine that He should not be aware of it?
As then it is very unlikely that any politic impostor should make such a promise, as the text contains, a promise liable to be abused by any sort of men, and most of all by those, to whom it was made; so neither is it conceivable that, if a rash enthusiast had authorized his followers to rely on such a promise, the issue of it could have been that, which we certainly know it to have been.
For consider, what were the additions, made to the scheme of Jesus by his enlightened followers, and what the prophecies delivered by them? Only, such additions, as served to open and display the scheme of the Gospel, in a manner that perfectly corresponded with the declared views of its author, or at least no way contradicted them: And only, such prophecies, as have either been clearly fulfilled, or not convicted of imposture, to this day.
Then, again, those additions, were directly contrary to the preconceived notions and expectations, of those who made them; such, for instance, as the doctrines concerning the rejection of the Jews, the call of the Gentiles, the abolition of the Mosaic ritual, and the spirituality of Christ’s kingdom; doctrines, which, in the life-time of their Master, and till enlightened by the promised Spirit of truth, they had either not understood, or had rejected as false and incredible; yet doctrines, which made the principal part of those truths, into which they were led by the Spirit.
And as to the prophecies, delivered by them, what less could one expect from so general, and so flattering a promise, than that they should be numerous, and, at the same time, replete with presages of good fortune to themselves and their party, and with terrible denunciations of wrath against their opposers? Yet nothing of all this followed. The predictions, they gave out, were indeed so many as to shew that the promise was performed to them; yet, on the whole, but few; in truth, much fewer than can be imagined without a particular inquiry into the number of them: And of these few, the greater part were employed in declaring the corruptions, that should hereafter be made of the new religion, they were teaching, and the disasters that should befall the teachers of it; and scarce one, directed against their present and personal enemies.
All this is astonishing, and unaccountable an the common principles of human nature, if left to itself in the management of such a faculty as that of prophetic inspiration. And, though, on these principles, it was to be supposed, nay, might certainly have been concluded, that a set of the craftiest impostors, or of the honestest fanatics, that ever lived, must, in the end, dishonour themselves by the exercise of such a power, and defeat their own purpose; yet, to the surprize of all reflecting men, they have maintained, to this day, their character of veracity, not one of their prophecies having fallen to the ground; and, what is more, with so many chances against the success of their cause, they have triumphed over all opposition, and have established in the world a new religion with that force of evidence, which, as their Master divinely foretold, all their adversaries have not been able to gainsay.
In a word, the EVENT has been, and is such, as might be expected, if the divine assistance promised, was actually imparted to them; but improbable in the highest degree, or rather impossible to have taken place, if fraud, or enthusiasm, had been concerned, either in giving, or fulfilling, this promise.
It would be equally an abuse of your patience, and an affront to your good sense, to enlarge farther on so plain a point. From recollecting, and laying together, the circumstances, which have been now briefly touched, and pointed out to you, ye will conclude, That, when Jesus gave this extraordinary promise of the Spirit to his followers, he certainly knew, that he should be able to make good his engagements to them: And that this spirit, being of God, would not be at the command of his followers, to be employed by them, as their passions, or short-sighted policies, might direct; but would operate in them, according to the good pleasure and unerring wisdom of HIM, who sent this celestial guide; or, in the words of the text, that he should not speak of himself, but whatsoever he should hear, that, only, he should speak.
No ill effects would, then, proceed from the privilege of being let into new truths, or, of being entrusted with the power of foretelling things to come. And, from the very consideration, that Jesus had engaged to confer such privileges upon his disciples, who, if not over-ruled in the use of them, that is, if not truly and immediately inspired, would, or rather must, have employed them to the discredit and subversion of his own design; from this single consideration, I say, it may fairly be concluded, especially when we can now compare the assurance with the event, That He himself was the person, he assumed to be, that is, A DIVINE PERSON; and his religion, what we believe it to be, THE WORD AND WILL OF GOD.