their doctrine to the miracles performed by Christ during his abode on earth, to his resurrection, and to the miraculous powers which they possessed themselves, and which they bestowed on others,-if all these pretensions were without the least foundation;-requires more faith to believe than any of the doctrines of Christianity.

CHAPTER IX.

ON THE INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.

THE arguments contained in the foregoing chapter may fairly be alleged, even on the confined ground which I have there taken; viz. that the moral doctrines of Christ and his promise of future life, sanctioned by the miracles he performed, by his resurrection, and the extraordinary powers he bestowed on the Apostles (which formed the original basis of Christianity, and continue to be the fundamental articles of our faith), were the only unquestioned facts upon which we could depend for the truth of revelation. But the evidence in its favour will receive strong additional confirmation, if we make it appear that the books of the New Testament are the same which were received as authentic by the earliest Christians, and must, therefore, have been written at the time, and by or under the direction of those in whose name they are come down to us.

It is known that the first Christians had books under the same designation, which they looked upon with veneration, as containing the authentic records and the origin of their faith; that these books agreed with our own in the great fundamentals of Christianity, and, as far as we can judge, from the numerous

quotations contained in the writings of the fathers, that they also agreed with them in their contents. It is likewise known, that, from the times of the earliest Christians, these sacred depositories of their religion were kept with extreme care and caution; that they were multiplied to an immense extent, translated into various languages, and spread over the whole world. Is it, therefore, I will not say probable, but possible, that the copies of these genuine books should have been all destroyed without exception; and that a spurious and fabricated version should have been insensibly substituted in their place, and universally received through all the nations of the Christian world, without the least trace or intimation that a different version had ever existed? Very soon after the establishment of Christianity, it was divided into various sects, which all, however, acknowledged the same books as authority; for, notwithstanding their violent contentions as to the sense and interpretation of Scripture, they all agreed as to the authenticity of the text. If there was some dispute with respect to a few books of no material importance, it will only confirm my statement, because here, as in other cases, the exception proves the rule.

Surely, if any of the books thus admitted to be genuine had been changed or corrupted by any one of those sects, the adverse party would have detected and exposed the imposture. The bare attempt to substitute a new book in the room of any of those which had acquired the veneration of the Christian

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world would have been met with universal indigna tion still more impossible is it to believe that all the old versions should have been changed for the new ones at the same moment, through so many different nations, languages, and contending sects; and that those who had studied and were conversant with the one should have received the other without any discussion, and without being sensible of the change: this, surely, would be as great a miracle as any recorded in the Gospel.

For these reasons, I have no doubt but that the Gospels and the Epistles of St. Paul, which we have in our Bibles, are the same as the books which the earliest Christians admitted as the authentic records of their faith. When I say they are the same, I do not vouch for every letter or sentence: some inaccuracies may, and some have been proved to, exist in these writings; but from the great multiplication of them, and the various sects in whose hands they were, it is not probable that these variations can be numerous or important. We have the copies of the different churches, which agree with each other in all material points, and afford a strong proof of the care that was taken of those books, and the veneration in which they were held; since the spirit of party, and, of all parties the most virulent, that of religious animosity, has not prevailed so far as to induce any of the contending sects to falsify these sacred records, in order to adapt them to their own purposes.

These arguments receive additional confirmation

from the internal evidence of the writings themselves, which bear strong marks of having been written by contemporary writers at the time of the establishment of Christianity, most especially the Epistles of St. Paul, which are clearly occasional, written to different assemblies of Christians, and relating chiefly to temporal events and local circumstances which happened to those different societies at their first institution; insomuch that many of the references are now obscure and not easily to be explained, even by learned commentators; but there is enough sufficiently intelligible to convince every attentive and impartial reader, that they must have been written in the very outset and first propagation of the Christian faith.

Now, if we admit the books of Scripture in our hands to be genuine, that is, to have been written at the time by persons who had the means of knowing the truth of what they related, their contents will afford a very strong internal evidence in favour of the truth of revelation.

When we talk of the internal evidence of Scripture, I am aware it is a two-edged sword, and that the strongest objections have been derived from the doctrines which are supposed to be contained in those books. And certainly, if predestination, and the indefeasible election of some men and final reprobation of others; if the doctrine of a Trinity in Unity; if the sufferings of a God who is impassible; if the death of a being who is immortal; if the punishment of an innocent, perfect, and divine being