of such an account upon the face of it, be- different history of the subject from ours, no cause it describes effects, namely, the appear- other or different account of the origin of the ance in the world of a new religion, and the institution. And I think also that it may conversion of great multitudes to it, without with great reason be contended, either that the descending, in the smallest degree, to the de- passage is genuine, or that the silence of Josetail of the transaction upon which it was phus was designed. For, although we should founded, the interior of the institution, the lay aside the authority of our own books entireevidence or arguments offered by those who ly, yet when Tacitus, who wrote not twenty, drew over others to it. Yet still here is no perhaps not ten, years after Josephus, in his contradiction of our story; no other or differ- account of a period in which Josephus was ent story set up against it: but so far a con- nearly thirty years of age, tells us, that a vast firmation of it, as that, in the general points multitude of Christians were condemned at on which the heathen account touches, it agrees Rome; that they derived their denomination with that which we find in our own books. from Christ, who, in the reign of Tiberius, was The same may be observed of the very few put to death, as a criminal, by the procurator, Jewish writers, of that and the adjoining pe- Pontius Pilate; that the superstition had spread riod, which have come down to us. Whatever not only over Judea, the source of the evil, but they omit, or whatever difficulties we may find had reached Rome also:—when Suetonius, an in explaining the omission, they advance no historian contemporary with Tacitus, relates other history of the transaction than that which that, in the time of Claudius, the Jews were we acknowledge. Josephus, who wrote his making disturbances at Rome, Christus being Antiquities, or History of the Jews, about sixty their leader; and that, during the reign of years after the commencement of Christianity, Nero, the Christians were punished; under in a passage generally admitted as genuine, both which emperors, Josephus lived: when makes mention of John under the name of Pliny, who wrote his celebrated epistle not John the Baptist; that he was a preacher of more than thirty years after the publication of virtue; that he baptized his proselytes; that Josephus's history, found the Christians in such he was well received by the people; that he numbers in the province of Bithynia, as to draw was imprisoned and put to death by Herod; from him a complaint, that the contagion had and that Herod lived in a criminal cohabitation seized cities, towns, and villages, and had so with Herodias, his brother's wife. In an- seized them as to produce a general desertion other passage allowed by many, although not of the public rites; and when, as has already without considerable question being moved been observed, there is no reason for imagin about it, we hear of "James, the brother of ing that the Christians were more numerous him who was called Jesus, and of his being put in Bithynia than in many other parts of the to death." In a third passage, extant in Roman empire: it cannot, I should suppose, every copy that remains of Josephus's History, after this, be believed, that the religion, and but the authenticity of which has nevertheless the transaction upon which it was founded, been long disputed, we have an explicit testi- were too obscure to engage the attention of mony to the substance of our history in these Josephus, or to obtain a place in his history. words:" At that time lived Jesus, a wise Perhaps he did not know how to represent the man, if he may be called a man, for he perform- business, and disposed of his difficulties by pased many wonderful works. He was a teacher sing it over in silence. Eusebius wrote the of such men as received the truth with pleasure. life of Constantine, yet omits entirely the most He drew over to him many Jews and Gentiles. remarkable circumstance in that life, the death This was the Christ; and when Pilate, at the of his son Crispus: undoubtedly for the reason instigation of the chief men among us, had con- here given. The reserve of Josephus upon the demned him to the cross, they who before had subject of Christianity appears also in his passconceived an affection for him, did not cease ing over the banishment of the Jews by Clauto adhere to him; for, on the third day, he dius, which Suetonius, we have seen, has recordappeared to them alive again, the divine pro-ed with an express reference to Christ. This phets having foretold these and many wonderful things concerning him. And the sect of the Christians, so called from him, subsists to this time." Whatever become of the controversy concerning the genuineness of this passage; whether Josephus go the whole length of our history, which, if the passage be sincere, he does; or whether he proceed only a very little way with us, which, if the passage be rejected, we confess to be the case; still what we asserted is true, that he gives no other or Antiq. 1. xviii. cap. v. sect. 1, 2. + Antiq. 1. xx. cap. ix. sect. 1. Antiq. 1. xviii, cap. iii. sect. 3 is at least as remarkable as his silence about the infants of Bethlehem. Be, however, the fact, or the cause of the omission in Josephus, † what it may, no other or different his ly enough, that probably not more than twenty children * Michaelis has computed, and, as it should seem, fairperished by this cruel precaution. Michaelis's Introduc tion to the New Testament, translated by Marsh; vol. i, c. ii. sect. 11. + There is no notice taken of Christianity in the Mishna, a collection of Jewish traditions compiled about the year 180; although it contains a Tract "De cultu peregrino," of strange or idolatrous worship; yet it cannot be disputed but that Christianity was perfectly well known in the world at this time. There is extremely little no tice of the subject in the Jerusalem Talmud, compiled about the rear 300, and not much more in the Babylon. tory on the subject has been given by him, or is pretended to have been given. In an epistle, bearing the name of Barnabas, the companion of Paul, probably genuine, But further; the whole series of Christian certainly belonging to that age, we have the writers, from the first age of the institution sufferings of Christ, his choice of apostles and down to the present, in their discussions, apo- their number, his passion, the scarlet robe, the logies, arguments, and controversies, proceed vinegar and gall, the mocking and piercing, upon the general story which our Scriptures the casting lots for his coat, his resurrection contain, and upon no other. The main facts, on the eighth (i. e. the first day of the week,)† the principal agents, are alike in all. This ar- and the commemorative distinction of that gument will appear to be of great force, when day, his manifestation after his resurrection, it is known that we are able to trace back the and, lastly, his ascension. We have also his series of writers to a contact with the histori- miracles generally but positively referred to in cal books of the New Testament, and to the the following words:" Finally, teaching the age of the first emissaries of the religion, and people of Israel, and doing many wonders and to deduce it, by an unbroken continuation, signs among them, he preached to them, and from that end of the train to the present. showed the exceeding great love which he bare towards them."+ The remaining letters of the apostles, (and what more original than their letters can we In an epistle of Clement, a hearer of St. have?) though written without the remotest Paul, although written for a purpose remotedesign of transmitting the history of Christ, ly connected with the Christian history, we or of Christianity, to future ages, or even of have the resurrection of Christ, and the submaking it known to their contemporaries, in- sequent mission of the apostles, recorded in cidentally disclose to us the following circum- these satisfactory terms: "The apostles have stances:-Christ's descent and family; his in- preached to us from our Lord Jesus Christ nocence; the meekness and gentleness of his from God:-For, having received their comcharacter (a recognition which goes to the mand, and being thoroughly assured by the rewhole Gospel history ;) his exalted nature; surrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, they went his circumcision; his transfiguration; his life abroad, publishing that the kingdom of God of opposition and suffering; his patience and was at hand."§ We find noticed also, the huresignation; the appointment of the eucharist, mility, yet the power of Christ, his descent and the manner of it; his agony; his confes- from Abraham, his crucifixion. We have Peter sion before Pontius Pilate; his stripes, cruci- and Paul represented as faithful and righte fixion, and burial; his resurrection; his ap-ous pillars of the church; the numerous sufpearance after it, first to Peter, then to the ferings of Peter; the bonds, stripes, and stonrest of the apostles; his ascension into heaven; ing of Paul, and more particularly his extenand his designation to be the future judge of sive and unwearied travels. mankind ;-the stated residence of the apos- In an epistle of Polycarp, a disciple of St. tles at Jerusalem; the working of miracles by John, though only a brief hortatory letter, we the first preachers of the Gospel, who were al- have the humility, patience, sufferings, resurso the hearers of Christ ;*—the successful pro-rection, and ascension of Christ, together with pagation of the religion; the persecution of its the apostolic character of St. Paul, distinctly followers; the miraculous conversion of Paul; recognized.¶ Of this same father we are also miracles wrought by himself, and alleged in his controversies with his adversaries, and in letters to the persons amongst whom they were wrought; finally, that MIRACLES were the signs of an apostle.+ assured by Irenæus, that he (Irenæus,) had heard him relate, "what he had received from eye-witnesses concerning the Lord, both concerning his miracles and his doctrine."** In the remaining works of Ignatius, the ish Talmud, of the year 500; although both these works contemporary of Polycarp, larger than those are of a religious nature, and although, when the first of Polycarp (yet, like those of Polycarp, treatwas compiled, Christianity was on the point of becoming ing of subjects in nowise leading to any recithe religion of the state, and, when the latter was pub-tal of the Christian history,) the occasional allished, had been so for 200 years. *Heb. ii. 3. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so lusions are proportionably more numerous.— great salvation, which, at the first, began to be spoken The descent of Christ from David, his mother by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him, God also bearing them witness, both with Mary, his miraculous conception, the star at signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of his birth, his baptism by John, the reason asthe Holy Ghost?" I allege this epistle without hesita tion; for, whatever doubts may have been raised about signed for it, his appeal to the prophets, the its author, there can be none concerning the age in which ointment poured on his head, his sufferings it was written. No epistle in the collection carries about under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, it more indubitable marks of antiquity than this does. It speaks, for instance, throughout, of the temple as then his resurrection, the Lord's day called and kept standing, and of the worship of the temple as then sub-in commemoration of it, and the eucharist, in sisting.-Heb. viii. 4: "For, if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing there are priests that offer both its parts,-are unequivocally referred to. according to the law."-Again, Heb. xiii. 10. "We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle." +"Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." 2 Cor. xii. 12. Ep. Bar. c. vii. + Ibid. c. vi. Ibid. c. v. Ep. Clem. Rom. c. xlii. Ep. Clem. Rom, c. xvi. ** Ir. ad Flor, ap. Euseb, 1. v. c. 20. Upon the resurrection, this writer is even cir- that, in the places where we were most likely cumstantial. He mentions the apostles' eating to meet with such things, if such things had and drinking with Christ after he had risen, existed, no reliques appear of any story subtheir feeling and their handling him; from stantially different from the present, as the which last circumstance Ignatius raises this cause, or as the pretence of the institution. just reflection ;-" They believed, being convinced both by his flesh and spirit; for this cause, they despised death, and were found to be above it."* Now that the original story, the story delivered by the first preachers of the institution, should have died away so entirely as to have left no record or memorial of its existence, Quadratus, of the same age with Ignatius, although so many records and memorials of has left us the following noble testimony:-the time and transaction remain; and that "The works of our Saviour were always con- another story should have stepped into its spicuous, for they were real; both those that place, and gained exclusive possession of the were healed, and those that were raised from belief of all who professed themselves disciples the dead; who were seen not only when they were healed or raised, but for a long time afterwards: not only whilst he dwelled on this earth, but also after his departure, and for a good while after it, insomuch that some of them have reached to our times."+ of the institution, is beyond any example of the corruption of even oral tradition, and still less consistent with the experience of written history: and this improbability, which is very great, is rendered still greater by the reflection, that no such change as the oblivion of one story, Justin Martyr came little more than thirty and the substitution of another, took place in years after Quadratus. From Justin's works, any future period of the Christian era. Christiwhich are still extant, might be collected a anity hath travelled through dark and turbutolerably complete account of Christ's life, in lent ages; nevertheless it came out of the cloud all points agreeing with that which is deliver- and the storm, such, in substance, as it entered in our Scriptures; taken indeed, in a great ed in. Many additions were made to the primeasure, from those Scriptures, but still prov-mitive history, and these entitled to different ing that this account, and no other, was the degrees of credit; many doctrinal errors also account known and extant in that age. The were from time to time grafted into the pubmiracles in particular, which form the part of lic creed; but still the original story remain. Christ's history most material to be traced, ed, and remained the same. In all its prinstand fully and distinctly recognised in the fol- cipal parts, it has been fixed from the beginlowing passage:" He healed those who had ning. been blind, and deaf, and lame from their Thirdly: The religious rites and usages that birth; causing, by his word, one to leap, an- prevailed amongst the early disciples of Chrisother to hear, and a third to see: and by rais-tianity, were such as belonged to, and sprung ing the dead, and making them to live, he in-out of, the narrative now in our hands; which duced, by his works, the men of that age to accordancy shows, that it was the narrative know him."+ upon which these persons acted, and which It is unnecessary to carry these citations they had received from their teachers. Our lower, because the history, after this time, account makes the Founder of the religion dioccurs in ancient Christian writings as famili-rect that his disciples should be baptized: we arly as it is wont to do in modern sermons; know that the first Christians were baptized. -occurs always the same in substance, and Our account makes him direct that they should always that which our evangelists represent. hold religious assemblies: we find, that they This is not only true of those writings of did hold religious assemblies. Our accounts Christians, which are genuine, and of acknow- make the apostles assemble upon a stated day ledged authority; but it is, in a great measure, of the week: we find, and that from informatrue of all their ancient writings which re- tion perfectly independent of our accounts, that main; although some of these may have been the Christians of the first century did observe erroneously ascribed to authors to whom they stated days of assembling. Our histories redid not belong, or may contain false accounts, cord the institution of the rite which we call or may appear to be undeserving of credit, or the Lord's Supper, and a command to repeat never indeed to have obtained any. What- it in perpetual succession: we find, amongst ever fables they have mixed with the narra- the early Christians, the celebration of this tive, they preserve the material parts, the lead-rite universal. And, indeed, we find concuring facts, as we have them; and, so far as ring in all the above-mentioned observances, they do this, although they be evidence of no- Christian societies of many different nations thing else, they are evidence that these points and languages, removed from one another by were fixed, were received and acknowledged a great distance of place and dissimilitude of by all Christians in the ages in which the books situation. It is also extremely material to rewere written. At least, it may be asserted, mark, that there is no room for insinuating Ad Smyr. c. iii. Ap. Euseb. H. E. lib. 4. c. 2. * Just. Dial. cum Tryph. p. 288, ed. Thirl, that our books were fabricated with a studious accommodation to the usages which obtained at the time they were written; that the au cion. thors of the books found the usages establish- | his resurrection, "Touch me not, for I am ed, and framed the story to account for their not yet ascended to my Father: but go unto original. The Scripture accounts, especially my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unof the Lord's Supper, are too short and cur- to my Father and your Father, unto my God sory, not to say too obscure, and, in this view, and your God." This can only be accountdeficient, to allow a place for any such suspi-ed for by the supposition that Saint John wrote under a sense of the notoriety of Christ's ascension, amongst those by whom his book was likely to be read. The same account must also be given of Saint Matthew's omission of the same important fact. The thing was very well known, and it did not occur to the histo rian that it was necessary to add any particu lars concerning it. It agrees also with this solution, and with no other, that neither Matthew, nor John, disposes of the person of our Lord in any manner whatever. Other intimations in Saint John's Gospel of the then ge Amongst the proofs of the truth of our proposition, viz. that the story, which we have now, is, in substance, the story which the Christians had then, or, in other words, that the accounts in our Gospels are, as to their principal parts at least, the accounts which the apostles and original teachers of the religion delivered, one arises from observing, that it appears by the Gospels themselves, that the story was public at the time; that the Christian community was already in possession of the substance and principal parts of the narra-neral notoriety of the story are the following: tive. The Gospels were not the original cause His manner of introducing his narrative (ch. i. of the Christian history being believed, but ver. 15.) "John bare witness of him, and were themselves among the consequences of cried, saying," evidently presupposes that that belief. This is expressly affirmed by Saint his readers knew who John was. His rapid Luke, in his brief, but, as I think, very im- parenthetical reference to John's imprisonportant and instructive preface :" Foras- ment, "for John was not yet cast into primuch (says the evangelist) as many have taken son,"+ could only come from a writer whose in hand to set forth in order a declaration of mind was in the habit of considering John's those things which are most surely believed a- imprisonment as perfectly notorious. The demongst us, even as they delivered them unto us, scription of Andrew by the addition "Simon which, from the beginning, were eye-witnesses Peter's brother," takes it for granted, that and ministers of the word; it seemed good to Simon Peter was well known. His name had me also, having had perfect understanding of not been mentioned before. The evangelist's all things from the very first, to write unto noticing§ the prevailing misconstruction of a thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that discourse, which Christ held with the beloved thou mightest know the certainty of those disciple, proves that the characters and the things wherein thou hast been instructed."- discourse were already public. And the obThis short introduction testifies, that the sub-servation which these instances afford, is of stance of the history, which the evangelist was equal validity for the purpose of the present about to write, was already believed by Chris- argument, whoever were the authors of the tians; that it was believed upon the declara-histories. tions of eye-witnesses and ministers of the These four circumstances ;-first, the recog word; that it formed the account of their re-nition of the account in its principal parts, by ligion in which Christians were instructed; a series of succeeding writers; secondly, the that the office which the historian proposed to total absence of any account of the origin of himself, was to trace each particular to its ori- the religion substantially different from ours; gin, and to fix the certainty of many things thirdly, the early and extensive prevalence of which the reader had before heard of. In rites and institutions, which result from our Saint John's Gospel, the same point appears account; fourthly, our account bearing, in its hence, that there are some principal facts, to construction, proof that it is an account of which the historian refers, but which he does facts, which were known and believed at the not relate. A remarkable instance of this kind time;-are sufficient, I conceive, to support an is the ascension, which is not mentioned by assurance, that the story which we have now, Saint John in its place, at the conclusion of is, in general, the story which Christians had his history, but which is plainly referred to in at the beginning. I say in general; by which the following words of the sixth chapter+:-term I mean, that it is the same in its texture, & What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? And still more positively in the words which Christ, according to our evangelist, spoke to Mary after and in its principal facts. For instance, I make no doubt, for the reasons above stated, but that the resurrection of the Founder of the religion was always a part of the Christian story. Nor can a doubt of this remain upon The reader who is conversant in these researches, the mind of any one who reflects that the re by comparing the short Scripture accounts of the Chris tían rites above-mentioned, with the minute and circum-surrection is, in some form or other, asserted, stantial directions contained in the pretended apostolical constitutions, will see the force of this observation: the difference between truth and forgery, Also John iii, 13, and xvi. 289. * John xx. 17. ↑ John Hi. 24. Ibid. i, 40. referred to, or assumed, in every Christian veller of the most active of all the teachers of writing, of every description, which hath come the religion, and in the course of his travels down to us. frequently in the society of the original apos And if our evidence stopped here, we should tles. The received author of the fourth, as have a strong case to offer: for we should have well as of the first, was one of these apostles. to allege, that in the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, No stronger evidence of the truth of a history a certain number of persons set about an at- can arise from the situation of the historian, tempt of establishing a new religion in the than what is here offered. The authors of all world: in the prosecution of which purpose, the histories lived at the time and upon the they voluntarily encountered great dangers, spot. The authors of two of the histories were undertook great labours, sustained great suf- present at many of the scenes which they deferings, all for a miraculous story, which they scribe; eye-witnesses of the facts, ear-witnesses published wherever they came; and that the of the discourses; writing from personal knowresurrection of a dead man, whom during his ledge and recollection; and, what strengthens life they had followed and accompanied, was a their testimony, writing upon a subject in constant part of this story. I know nothing which their minds were deeply engaged, and in the above statement which can, with any in which, as they must have been very freappearance of reason, be disputed; and I know quently repeating the accounts to others, the nothing, in the history of the human species, passages of the history would be kept continusimilar to it. CHAPTER VIII. ally alive in their memory. Whoever reads the Gospels (and they ought to be read for this particular purpose,) will find in them not merely a general affirmation of miraculous powers, but detailed circumstantial accounts of miracles, with specifications of time, place, and persons; and these accounts many and variThere is satisfactory evidence that many professous. In the Gospels, therefore, which bear ing to be original witnesses of the Christian the names of Matthew and John, these narramiracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, tives, if they really proceeded from these men, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attes must either be true, as far as the fidelity of tation of the accounts which they delivered, human recollection is usually to be depended and solely in consequence of their belief of upon, that is, must be true in substance, and those accounts; and that they also submitted, in their principal parts (which is sufficient for from the same motives, to new rules of conduct. the purpose of proving a supernatural agency,) or they must be wilful and meditated false THAT the story which we have now is, in hoods. Yet the writers who fabricated and the main, the story which the apostles publish- uttered these falsehoods, if they be such, are ed, is, I think, nearly certain, from the consi- of the number of those who, unless the whole derations which have been proposed. But contexture of the Christian story be a dream, whether, when we come to the particulars, and sacrificed their ease and safety in the cause, the detail of the narrative, the historical books and for a purpose the most inconsistent that of the New Testament be deserving of credit is possible with dishonest intentions. They as histories, so that a fact ought to be account-were villains for no end but to teach honesty, ed true, because it is found in them; or whe- and martyrs without the least prospect of hother they are entitled to be considered as re-nour or advantage. presenting the accounts which, true or false, The Gospels which bear the name of Mark the apostles published ;-whether their authority, in either of these views, can be trusted to, is a point which necessarily depends upon what we know of the books, and of their authors. and Luke, although not the narratives of eyewitnesses, are, if genuine, removed from that only by one degree. They are the narratives of contemporary writers; or writers themselves mixing with the business; one of the two pro Now, in treating of this part of our argu-bably living in the place which was the prin ment, the first and most material observation cipal scene of action; both living in habits of upon the subject is, that such was the situa-society and correspondence with those who had tion of the authors to whom the four Gospels been present at the transactions which they are ascribed, that, if any one of the four be relate. The latter of them accordingly tells genuine, it is sufficient for our purpose. The us (and with apparent sincerity, because he received author of the first, was an original tells it without pretending to personal knowapostle and emissary of the religion. The re- ledge, and without claiming for his work great+ ceived author of the second, was an inhabitant er authority than belonged to it,) that the of Jerusalem at the time, to whose house the things which were believed amongst Christians, apostles were wont to resort, and himself an came from those who from the beginning were attendant upon one of the most eminent of eye-witnesses and ministers of the word; that that number. The received author of the he had traced accounts up to their source; and third, was a stated companion and fellow-tra- [that he was prepared to instruct his reader in |