OCR Text |
Show : With a Refutation of ths Errors Which It Condemns Translated from the Italian of L'Faleonl. Absolute Rationalism. Seventh Error: I "The prophecies and the miracles recounted re-counted in the Holy Scriptures are the inventions of poets; the mysteries of ' the Christian faith are the resulst of j philosophical investigations; the books ' of both testaments fabulous stories; , and Jesus Christ himself is a mythical j notion. Refutation. The miracles recorded in ; the Holy Scripturesi are not the in- j ventions of poets; they are facts and ( possess all the characteristics of his- j torical truth. Sound and accurate per- ! ception in thesa who are eye-witneuses to facts is the criterion of their certt- ; tude. We have positive assurance that thesa wonders really took place and that we have not been deceived con- i corning them, because the circumstances circum-stances surrounding them were such as to render deception impossible. The marvels wrought in favor of the Israelites Israel-ites during their sojourn in Egypt, as well as their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, are recorded in the books written by Moses himself and bequeathed be-queathed by him to this same people. Would it not have betn the height of folly on his part to represent hese' miracles as having taken place under the very eyes of his people, if such were not really the case? and, if they were WltnOUL lOUIl'.UUlOIl 111 iiUJl, Jum ii' tha opponents of the great law-giver have been but too ready to demonstrate demon-strate the untruthfulness of his narrative narra-tive by a direct appeal to the testimony of those in whose behalf and in whose presence they were said to have been performed? The Israelites would not have entertained so profound a respect for the books of Moses, if they had. regarded them as a record of falsehoods an argument which derives additional force from the fact that these same books are a standing memorial of their own unfaithfulness and shameful ingratitude. in-gratitude. The truth of these miracles ia so firmly established that it cannot be called, in question without at the same time overturning the criterion of all historical certitude. It were easier by far to deny that Nineveh, Babylon, Athens or Rome, ever existed. All that has been said above applies with equal force to the prolongation of the day in order that Jesus might complete com-plete his victory', to the going back of the shadow on the sun dial of Achaz, in token of the restoration of Ezec-hias to health, to the shutting up the heaven:! heav-en:! from ralaing by the Prophet Eiias and to the consuming, at his prayer, , of the holocaust without the applica- i tion of natural fire; in a word, to all of the marvelous occurrences recorded in the Holy Scriptures. These miraclee were wrought, not privately or in secret, but in the presence- of a people unanimous in attesting attest-ing their occurrence. Some of them extended in their consequences to other ! nations and to many of the fictions of pagan mythology. j Among the miracles recorded in the I New Testament I will mention the three dead persona restored to life by ; our Divine Lord, viz: Lazarus, who had been four days already in the grave; the daughter of Jarius, one of the Rulors of the Synagogue; and the son of the widow of Nairn; also the bestowal bes-towal of sight upon the man who had i been born blind a miracle which was investigated by the Pharisees, the blind man himself and his parents being summoned before their tribunal. The multitudes were filled wltP- rapturous joy at the spectacle of the wonders which Jesus' wrought, and they gave praise to God, exclaiming: He hath done all things well; He hath made both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak; and though the Pharisees made no secret of their enmity to the Son of Man, they could not deny the truth of His miracles, and were, Z.iere- r wN-r.t,-i. trt -r-.t.n (i n -1 rn Inrrtn in f Him, attributing His marvelous works to the influence of Belzebub, or to some mysterious virtue inherent in the divine name. Examine the Talmud and you will find therein a detailed account ac-count of tho most remarkable of His j miracles. I pass over in order to avoid tediousness, the large number of miracles performed by the Apostlets, and will content myself with mentioning mention-ing the one wrought upon the cripple who was- unable either to walk or to stand and who regained the use of hi3 limbs when St. Peter invoked the name of Jesus of Nazareth in his behalf. Unable Un-able to deny the miracle, the ancients and scribes asked St. Peter by what power or by what name it had been performed. By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ "of Nazareth, whom you sacrificed, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by Him this man stand-eth stand-eth here before you whole. This is the stona which was rejected by you, the builders; which is become the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven givon to man, whereby we must be saved. By the term "prophecy" I understand under-stand the announcement of contingent future events, which it is imrjossihlp- for human wisdom to foresee and which depend either upon the future action of men or upon the direct. action of Almighty Al-mighty God, to whom all things are present. An examination of the book3 of the Old and New Testaments will reveal many such prophecies, which were ful- filled to the very letter. Thus Mosea told the Israelites that God would work many wonders in their fav.or if they remained faithful0o His law a prediction pre-diction which was verified in the remarkable re-markable achievements of Joshua, Samson, Gideon and Ezechias. On the other hand, He declared that if they rebelled against God they would be visited with the severest Vastisement; that they would be exiled from thsir native land, reduced to slavery and dispersed over the face of the earth. The Babylonian captivity and the condition con-dition of the Jews at the present day are the fulfillment of this awful prophecy. Moses likewise foretold the coming of a Prophet greater than himself, him-self, destined to triumph over death and hell. and to 'free the world from the slavery of sin, and this prophecy was fully verified in Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Savior Himself predicts with the utmost minuteness of detal His passion and death, His denial by Peter i and the treason of Judas, and He foretold fore-told His resurrection so clearly that Hist enemies, the Pharisees, sought to prevent it by placing a guard of s.U diers over His sepulchre. He likewise prophesied the destruction of tho temple tem-ple and tho dispersion of the deicid:il people a prediction to whes.? fulfill ment the whole world boars witness. Julian, tho apostate, sought to rest.:-o tho temple and to reassemble the Jew within the limits of their former country, coun-try, but all his power and wealth of men and materials were unequal to the task. His impious attempt to rebuild re-build the temple served but to complete com-plete its destruction. A whirlwind of r!ame consumed the workmen and destroyed de-stroyed the vast amount of materia;-! which had been collected. The v.-y foundations of the temple were uproot-, ed and there was not left a stone lit" u a stone. Tiie facts are attested v. t only by Christian writers, but even by A :.imiar.us Marcellinus, Julian's historian his-torian and apologist. It is further advanced by our opponents op-ponents that the mysteries of ti. Christian religion are the mere rest;!; of philosophical investigations. In the early ages of Rationalism tN adversaries of Christianity oppo,.! it on the ground that its mysteries w. !.- j contrary to reason, iney were ; j refuted by the apologists of the ehur.-h, : who proved conclusively that the rn.--' teries, though superior, were not and could not be contrary to reason, it b. -ing impossible that mutually e.,nr:!-dietcry e.,nr:!-dietcry and repugnant gifts shouH proceed from an infinitely perfect God. Driven from this position. Rationalists now resort to other expedients in order-to defend their doctrines. Chris-, tianity. they say. has drawn its principles, prin-ciples, its dogmas, its rites and it-mysteries it-mysteries from the books of philosophers philos-ophers and from the customs of different dif-ferent nations. Thus, from the people of India it has taken the nysteries of the Trinity, of the Incarnation, of the fall of man, of the rebellion of t he-angels, he-angels, of baptism, etc.; from the Chinese the precepts of Christian humility, hu-mility, of the forgiveness of injuries, of charity towards enemies, and mnny others from the Egyptians and Persians. Per-sians. The answer to this objection. .. greatly relied upon by Rationalists is, that these mysteries are as different from those taught by the Christian religion re-ligion as the light of clay is from the darkness of night. They can at best only be considered as fragments uf j ancient traditions preserved in a confused con-fused and disfigured condition by those nations. Christ did not study either the Greek or the Roman philosophers, none of , whom ever originated a system of religion re-ligion and morals having the characteristics character-istics of unity and coherence. Their principles were disjointed and utterly incapable of cohering in any organized and harmonious whole. On the other I hand the Christian religion is a unit in its doctrine, thoroughly consistent j with itself and so closely connected in all its parts that the removal of a single sin-gle one would mar the beauty of the system and render inexplicable all that remained intact. Rationalists affirm that the Old and New Testaments are replete with I mythical inventions. It is very surprising that men, skilled in all there various branches of learning, learn-ing, like Petavius, Huetius, Bossuet and countless others, were unable to find any evidence of these mysteries and fablous beings in the Holy Scripture?; these m; th-i are found alike in the Jewish and the Chr:?;;i3n religion, and that this cannct be denied bv anyone who has kept pace with the progress of hi.l;orical, philological and philosophical philosophi-cal science. xjr a. my ui iney uncerstand one or those trilling tales which eimple and good-naiiiired grandames are accustomed accustom-ed to while away the dreary hour? of " the winter evening, or to amuse the little children entrusted to their charge. They say that fabulous narratives are found in the ancient monuments of all religious institution's: the design of these narratives is to bring the different religions- within the capacity of untutored un-tutored minds-, the writers have introduced intro-duced in them certain mysterious beings be-ings superior to humanity and capable of producing effects beyond, or against the known laws cf nature, and thsv aapure us- with the utmost gravity that it was reserved for the Inventive genius of the Rationalists to make this discovery. dis-covery. We have seen above that the Jewish religion wed confirmed by the most astonishing as-tonishing miracles, which were recorded, record-ed, not ad having happened in remote ages, or as having been performed in, secret, but which are expressly declared to have been wrought in the presence of the people who have transmitted an account of them to posterity. This very peo'ple assembled at the foot cf Mount Sinai, heard, amid the rumblingts of thunder and the sound of trumpets, the I i uii.u oi. uuu, ua-icmus jciis law; anu they were eye-witnesses of the wonders which Mos'cS performed in Egypt and at the Red Sea. The marvels t-elated in connnection wfth this people are not fabulous stories; they are absolute realities, proven to be such by the testimony tes-timony which they have given concerning concern-ing them, uninterruptedly- from generation gen-eration to generation for upwards of 3,000 years. The temporary residence of the Israelites Is-raelites in Egypt, their sojourn in tha desert, their arrival in Palestine, their attachment to the la wa and customs of their country are facts attested by ancient an-cient writers and more especially by the historian Tacitus. The testimony of profane authors, who are naturally averse to the Jewish religion, prove? therefore, the reality of its existence, and excludes all pceisibility of any well-founded well-founded mythical supposition regarding regard-ing it. The same may be said of the Christian Chris-tian religion, which is attested by Matthew Mat-thew and John, who were eye-witnesces to the facta that they record, and by the testimony, of Mark :nd Luke. The Evangelist narrated public and notor- I ious, facts, well calculated to excite the ! atttenltion of all men facts in, which I the enemies of the new religion were I j deeply interested; and those enemies, j t p b-e it remembered, were men hig-h in if power, who. therefore, might have con- f; tradicted any false statements contain- I Mi 3n tIie Gospel, loaded their authors with ishJarn-e and branded them, as importers. im-porters. Far, however, from being able to give the Jie to the evangelists, they were constr'ained by the evidence of their own senses to admit all that those holy men wrote; Hie Homo rnulna sis-ua sis-ua facit, et si dimlttajnus cum eic, om-I om-I neH credent in. eum. And in the council of the chief priests and Pharisees, convened for the pur-' pose of adopting: measures against the life of Jesus, Caiaphas adduced no reason rea-son wherewith to justify their conduct, except that if they left Him alone, the Romanw would take entire possession of their place and nation; that, therefore, there-fore, it was expedient that Jesus should die, in order that they might be left in the enjoyment of their power. "You I know nothing. Neither do you consider tthat it is expedient for you that one r man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not." It is, ; therefore, ridiculous to picture that Jesus Christ its. a myth. Were it so, the Jews would not now be without a country, without a temrle. without a pnesinooa, without sacrifices, dispersed over the world and despised by all the luaitiona of the earth. After this terrible ter-rible niytli had been consigned to the grave, His enemies could not rest at;-' eured. that Uhey had completely triumphed triumph-ed over Him. A susDk-ion crept in'to their jnindis and troubled them so much ilrat they presented themselves before I Pilate, demanding that a detachment of soldiers be dispatched to mount guard over the sepulchre and that the IHa.me be impres.---.ed with the great seal of the state; Lignantes capidem cum cubtodibu?. They feared lest the myth should be spirited away by His disciples. dis-ciples. Pilaite, the Procurator of Judea, who played so prominent a part in he death of Jesus, and who will be regarded ad a type of the unjust, cowardly and timeserving time-serving judge, after having thrice declared de-clared Him innocent, condemned Him to death, oEUerasibly to satisfy the people, peo-ple, but in reality that he might not Joe favor with Caesar; and he afterwards after-wards transmitted to the st-nate an account ac-count of the life, miracles and tragical end of Christ, aa we sre assured by Tertullian. who nrevniled unnn the em peror and the senate to examine the original document, which wau at hat time preserved in the Roman archives. It is related in the Talmud that the people once ai?ked Jesus to tell them definitely whether He was the Messiah. He answered that He was. "How shall wa know that you are?" they asked. "Bring ma a dead man," He replied, "and I will raise him to life." They immediately opened a. tomb, but found only bones. "Bring me even thoae bones," said He, "and the man to whom they belonged shall be restored to life." Thus, the j aunuuiics memseives nave always regarded re-garded Jfus Christ as a real historical pei'mage, and it .never enitered their Minds that He was a Myth. Then He went about working miracles. He was tailed the son of the carpenter; Julian, the apostate, applied the same title to Ii:n as a term of contempt, and He is recognized by the same name among the Jewra of the present day. He has at . all times been regarded as an 'listorical reality, and rot as a myth. It is too !.::e now to begin to cast doubts upon 3! Is existence. I refrain from further argument on this point, because the id t of Christ's life, pasi-icn and death is so plain and evident, that one cannot help seeing it, uniess by closing his eyej to the truth. (To Be Continued.) 4 |