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them into languages which have long ceased to be spoken; proving thereby the great antiquity of these books.

The peculiar style in which they were written (being Greek, with Hebrew and Syriac idioms) shews it was that of men of Hebrew origin. The genuineness of the books is not disputable because they relate supernatural events; for this is entirely a question of history.

The entire absence of any thing of the kind (with one single exception scarcely worth naming) shews it was no easy thing to forge Christian writings; though from the eagerness with which they would have been received, there was much temptation to it.

Had the ascription of the Gospels been conjectural, they would have been ascribed to more eminent Apostles than Matthew, Mark, and Luke, of whom we scarcely find any mention in the Scrip

tures.

Christian writers and Churches speedily came to a general agreement about the books we have.

The same proved by the following distinct propositions:

1st. By quotations from the Gospel histories in the works of ancient Christian writers, commencing

with the contemporaries of the Apostles, and continuing to the present time.

2nd. By the respect with which they were always quoted, as books "sui generis," and conclusive in all arguments.

3rd. By their being early collected into a volume. 4th. By their being distinguished by appropriate names and titles of respect.

5th. By their being publicly read in Christian assemblies.

6th. By commentaries being anciently written upon them; harmonies made out of them; different copies being collated; and versions of them being made into other languages.

7th. By their being received by different sects, as the touchstone of their arguments.

8th. By the circumstance of twenty books being always received by those who doubted of the others,

9th. By their being considered by the adversaries of Christianity as containing accounts upon which Christianity was founded.

10th. By formal catalogues being published of them.

11th. These propositions apply not to the Apocryphal books.

All the above propositions are most fully and convincingly demonstrated by numerous passages to be

found in the writings of the Christian Fathers, and various other documents, beginning with the apostolic age, and continued in an unbroken series down to our own times.

Recapitulation. The nature of the undertaking; the character of the persons employed; the opposition of their tenets to fixed opinions and national expectations; their condemnation of all other religions; their total want of power and authority; our knowledge of the fate of the Founder, and of the cruel treatment of His disciples within thirty years afterwards, as derived from the heathen writers; the evidence (both incidental and direct) of our own books, written by eye and ear-witnesses of the facts; all prove sufficiently that the original propagators of Christianity voluntarily subjected themselves to danger and suffering, and also that they adopted a new course of life. That it was for a miraculous story is evident, because they could have nothing else but miracles to build upon. That it was for the story which we have is plain, from the consideration that it was written by two of their own number, and two others personally connected with them; and that its genuineness is attested, both generally and specifically, by the most indisputable arguments and proofs.

If it be so, the religion must be true. These men

could not be deceivers. By only not bearing testimony they might have avoided all these sufferings, and have lived quietly. Would men in such circumstances pretend to have seen what they never saw, assert facts which they had no knowledge of, go about lying to teach virtue; and, though not only convinced of Christ's being an impostor, but having seen the ill success of his imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in carrying it on; and so persist, as to bring upon themselves, for nothing, and with a full knowledge of the consequence, enmity and hatred, danger and death?

CHAPTER II.

SECOND PROPOSITION.

There is not satisfactory evidence, that persons pretending to be original witnesses of other miracles, in their nature as certain as these, (Christian miracles) have ever acted in the same manner, in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and properly in consequence of their belief of the truth of these accounts.

Preparatory Considerations.

1st. Our history is contemporary, and not written after the events, like the accounts of Greek, Roman, and Gothic mythology, or Popish legends. The value of this is shewn in the account of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits *.

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* The life of Ignatius Loyola, was published fifteen years after his death, by a friend; in this life the author so far from ascribing any miracles to Ignatius, states the reasons why he was not invested with that power. About fifteen years after this his life was re-published, with additional facts, the fruit of further diligent inquiry; but

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