Thirdly: If we consider the nature of some of these gifts, it is difficult to conceive that a man like St. Paul could have been deceived respecting their reality. Several of them involved accessions of mental power, as for example the gift of wisdom, knowledge, and discerning of spirits. He must have known that at one time he had nothing but his natural endowments. At a later period he must have believed that his wisdom, knowledge, and power of discerning character was increased. These must have been definite facts of his mental consciousness. It is difficult to conceive how delusion was possible, when in his treatment of the entire subject he displays such clear indications of sound judgment and common sense.
Fourthly: It is necessary to suppose not only that St. Paul was a prey to delusion on this subject—if we deny that the gifts were real—but that a similar delusion was spread over the entire Church. Its individual members believed that they possessed them, no less than the Apostle. Those who possessed only the lower gifts were emulously desirous of possessing the higher ones. They also made an ostentatious use of them. Such are not the phenomena presented by enthusiasm. Was it possible that considerable numbers of persons should be deceived in supposing that they had acquired particular mental endowments of which they well knew that they had been previously destitute?
Fifthly: While the phenomena under consideration were unquestionably believed both by St. Paul and the Corinthian Church to be supernatural manifestations, yet it is a supernaturalism which differs in its entire aspect and character from any other which has been believed in by man. We may wander over the entire [pg 420] regions of history and fable, and we shall fail to find any belief in the supernatural, bearing the smallest resemblance to it. It is most definitely contrasted with that which has been ascribed to the contemporaries of our Lord; and which I have considered in the earlier portions of this work. Whence has come this most striking contrast? If St. Paul and the members of the Corinthian Church were a prey to the superstitious beliefs above referred to, how was it possible for them to have considered themselves to be living in the midst of an atmosphere which presented so marvellous a contrast. The gifts, if real, were precisely suited to the wants of the Church, for building it up into the great institution which it became. It required accessions to its numbers from the populations in the midst of which it lived. The two miraculous gifts, even if they were not evidential, were fitted to draw attention to its claims. Collected as its members were from Judaism and Heathenism, without sufficient means for their definite instruction, those who performed this office were qualified for it by two gifts conferring various degrees of enlightenment. Then there was the prophet, who as an inspired preacher expounded and enforced the truths of Christianity. Its members were ill-qualified for public offices, owing to the low condition of the society from which they sprang. Here again were two mental endowments to supply the need, the power of discerning spirits and the supernatural gift of faith. All these gifts here enumerated, were the very endowments suited for the building up of a body of converts taken from such unpromising sources, into the great society to which it speedily grew. A new society had to be formed of a wholly different character from any previously existing. It was designed to leaven by new influences the state of religious, moral, and [pg 421] political thought out of which it originated. The old social organization met it with determined opposition. The problem was how was it to be erected on such a basis as would give it permanence? The Church of Jesus Christ was to be a new moral creation in the midst of effete society. An extensive communication of endowments, such as are referred to in the Pauline Epistles, was the very thing which was requisite to accomplish this purpose. It came into existence; it grew; it struggled; it conquered; it subverted the old forms of civilization; it created new ones. These are facts which require to be accounted for. The forces referred to in these Epistles as in active energy before the eyes of St. Paul and the members of these Churches, were adequate to have effected this. Without some such moral creation attending the first planting of Christianity, the formation of this unique society out of the various elements of which it was composed, and their welding together into an organization instinct with life, which has imbued with its principles all existing institutions, must remain a problem which baffles all the attempts of philosophy to solve.
Lastly: These letters prove on the highest historical evidence that a supernatural power was believed to be manifested in the Church at the date of their composition, wholly different from any kind of ordinary current supernatural belief. Through the Acts of the Apostles, its existence can be traced up to a still earlier period. Two of these gifts, but two only, involved a power which we should now designate as essentially miraculous. This being so, the testimony of St. Paul, involving as it does that of the entire Church, is express as to the belief of contemporaries that miracles were actually performed. We can trace this belief up to the first origin of Christianity. If Jesus was believed to [pg 422] have endowed His followers with this power, it is impossible to believe that He was not supposed to have possessed it himself. These Epistles therefore are evidence that the earliest followers of Jesus believed that He was a worker of miracles. So far the proof is complete that the ascription of miracles to Jesus and His original followers was not due to the imagination of subsequent generations.
The careful perusal of these Epistles can leave only one impression on the mind of the reader, that he is in the presence of facts of an unquestionably historical character.
Chapter XIX. The Evidence Furnished By The Epistles To The Facts Of Our Lord's Life, And To The Truth Of The Resurrection.
I have proved in the last chapter that St. Paul and those to whom he wrote his Epistles firmly believed that a number of supernatural manifestations were displaying themselves in the Church under their immediate observation, and that their presence can be traced up to a much earlier date. I have also shown that St. Paul asserts in the most positive language that he was persuaded that he wrought miracles during the whole course of his mission. It is therefore in the highest degree probable that the servant was convinced that he did by the divine power of his Master that which he believed that his Master had accomplished before him; in other words, that he was a worker of miracles. But as it has been asserted that St. Paul knew only of a divine, and scarcely anything of a human Jesus, that is to say, that he was to a great extent ignorant of the events of our Lord's life, I must inquire what light the Epistles throw on this subject; for if it can be shown that St. Paul allowed himself to be ignorant of the human life of Jesus, it lowers the value of his testimony to the fact of the Resurrection.
The ground of this affirmation is that the direct references to the events of our Lord's life are few, and that he chiefly dwells on the glorified aspect of it after His Resurrection. The only passage, as far as I am aware, which has been adduced as proving this strange position is the following:—“He died for all, that they [pg 424] which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore, henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” 2 Cor. v. 15-17. The utmost that this passage can be made to prove is, that the belief in the Resurrection of Christ had thrown an entirely new aspect over His human life. The persons who had witnessed it had not seen its true significance. This is what the Synoptic Gospels plainly affirm to have been the case even with the Apostles during His public ministry. They had witnessed the events, but they had failed to penetrate into their inner life. This is what the Apostle means by “knowing Christ after the flesh,” i.e. according to the uniform meaning of that expression in the New Testament, the knowing the events of His life merely externally, as so many bare objective facts devoid of spiritual significance. This he affirms would be the mode in which neither he nor the Church would in future contemplate this subject. The very words which he uses imply that he and others had had this knowledge of Jesus. But such a knowledge would have been impossible without an intimate acquaintance with the events of His human life. What he affirms is, that he will contemplate them in future in their moral and religions aspect.