thought, the majesty and fimplicity of expreffion; the beauty, the purity, I could almoft fay the homogeneity of the doctrine ; the importance, the univerfality, and the expreffive brevity and paucity of the precepts ; their admirable appropriation to the nature and wants of man; the ardent charity which fo generously enforces the obfervation of them; the affecting piety, force, and gravity of the compofition; the profound and truly philofophical fenfe which I difcover in it; thefe are the characters which fix my attention to the book I examine, and which I do not meet with, in the fame degree, in any production of the human mind. I am equally affected with the candour, the ingenuouf nefs, the modefty, I fhould have faid, the humility, of the writers, and that unexampled and conftant forgetfulness of themselves, which never admits their own reflections, or the smallest eulogium in reciting the actions of their mafter.

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When I remark the plain, fimple, and difpaffionate account given by these writers of the greatest events, never attempting to aftonish

aftonish their readers, but endeavouring always to enlighten and convince them, I am irrefiftibly led to believe, that their only view was that of attesting to mankind a truth which they conceived of the highest importance to human happiness.

Regardless of themfelves, they feem full only of that great truth which they promulgated: I am not surprised, therefore, to find truth the only object which they have ftudied in their compofition. This they exhibit unadorned, unembellished; their language therefore is fimple—The leper ftretched forth his hand, and it became whole-The fick man took up his bed and walked.

The distinguishing characteristics of the true fublime appear in these writings; for when God is the object, it is fublime to say, He fpake, and it was done; but it is easily discerned that the fublime occurs there only because the thing was of an extraordinary nature, and because the writer delivered it as he saw it, that is, as it was. These writers appear to me not only most completely ingenuous,

genuous, for they do not even diffemble their own weakness; but I am ftill more aftonished, when they do not even diffemble certain circumftances of the life and fufferings of their mafter, which have no tendency to enhance his glory in the eyes of the world. Had they been filent as to these circumftances, their adverfaries affuredly could never have discovered them, nor confequently have taken any advantage from them. They have, however, not failed to relate them, and with all their minutest circumstances. poffible, therefore, not to feel that the port of their writing was to bear testimony to the truth.

It is im

pur

Is it poffible, I fay to myself, that these fishermen, who are fuppofed to perform actions not lefs astonishing than those of their mafter; who say to the lame man, Rise up and walk! and he walked; is it poffible that thefe fishermen should be fo deftitute of vanity, that they should disdain the applauses of the people who were fpectators of these prodigies?

My

My furprize and admiration, therefore, are equal, when I read these words, (a) Ye men

of Ifrael, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye fo earnestly on us, as though by our own power or boliness we had made this man to walk? In fo characteriftic a mark, can I miftake the expreffion of humility, difinterestedness, and truth? When I read these words my fections are raised, and they excite emotions in my foul.

af

Who then are these men, who, whilst nature is obedient to their voice, are fearful that this obedience fhould be attributed to their power or piety? How fhould the mind refuse its affent to fuch witneffes? How is

it poffible to fufpect fuch narrations to be mere inventions? And how many more circumstances of the fame nature do I discover, which are infeparably connected with thefe, and which were not at all more likely to present themfelves naturally to the minds of these men?.

(a) Acts iii. ver. 12.

CHAP.

CHA P. II.

REFLECTIONS ON THE NARRATIVE OF THE WITNESSES.-WHETHER IT HAS BEEN FORMALLY CONTRADICTED BY EVIDENCES OF THE SAME WEIGHT, AND MADE AT THE SAME TIME.

KNOW that feveral parts of the narrative appeared a very fhort time after the events attested by the witnesses. If these parts are the work of fome impoftor, he ought undoubtedly to have been cautious not to make his recital too circumftantial, left he should be more easily detected. And yet what can be more particular than the narrative now before me? I meet with the names of the persons, their qualities, office, habitation, and diseases. I observe the places, the time, the circumftances, pointed out, and numberless minute details, all concurring to describe the event in the most precise man

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