ACCOUNT OF BOOKS. 



445 



of those accounts, p. 1. Chap. II. 

 Consideration of some specitic in- 

 stances, p. 49. 



The reader who casts an attentive 

 pye over these, contents, will easily 

 see how much matter for conclusive 

 argument they comprehend, and in 

 how lucid an order the arguments 

 are digested. They are all treated 

 with that clearness and acuteness of 

 distinction for which Mr. Paley is 

 so eminent. In treating these sub- 

 jects we find much that if not alto- 

 gether new, is made so by the ad- 

 vantage of a new situation ; and 

 some arguments of an original na- 

 ture, of wliich kind the follovs'ing 

 Seems to afford a favourable speci- 

 men. 



" In treating of the written evi- 

 dence of Christianity, next to their 

 separate, we are to consider their 

 aggregate authority. Now there is 

 in the evangelic history a cumula- 

 tion of testimony which belongs 

 hardly to any otiier, but which our 

 habitual mode of reading the Scrip- 

 tures sometimes causes us to over- 

 look. Wl:en a passage, in anywise 

 relating to the history of Christ, is 

 read to us out of the epistle of Cle- 

 mens Romauus, the episth^s ofalg- 

 natiu:;, of Polycarp, or from any 

 other writing of tha* age, we are 

 immediately iens:ble«|4the confirma- 

 tion which it affords t^^^e Scripture 

 account. Here is a new witness. 

 Now if we had been accustomed to 

 read the gospel of Matthew alone, 

 and had known that of Luk^ only 

 as the generafity of Christian? know 

 the writings of tlie apostolical fa- 

 ther.;, tliat is, had known that such 

 a writing was extant and acknow- 

 ledged ; when we came, for the 

 first time, to look into what it con- 

 tained, and iound many of ti»e facts 

 which Matthew recorded, rjcordcd 



also there, many other facts of a 

 similar nature added, and through- 

 out the whole work, the same ge- 

 neral series of transactions stated* . 

 and the same general character of 

 the person who was the subject of 

 the history preserved, I appreh.cnd 

 that we should feelour minds strong- 

 ly impressed by this discovery of 

 fresh evidence. We should feel a 

 renewal of the same > sentiment iii 

 first reading the gospel of St. Jo'm. 

 That of St. Mark perhaps would 

 strike us as an abridgenieut of the 

 history with which v.e were already 

 acquainted, but we should naturally 

 reflect, that, if ihat histoty was a- 

 bridgfd by such a person as Mark, 

 or by any person of so early an age, 

 it afforded oneofthehighcst possible 

 attestations to the value of the work. 

 This .successive disclosure of proof 

 would leave us nssurcd, that there 

 . must have been at least some reality 

 in a story which, not one, but many, 

 had takert in hand to commit to 

 writing. The very existence of four 

 separate histories would satisfy us 

 that the subject had a foundation ; 

 and when, amidst the variety which 

 the different information of the dif- 

 ferent writers had supplied to their 

 accounts, or which tlieir different 

 choice and judgement in selecting 

 their matenals had produced, we 

 observed many facts to stand the 

 same in all ; of these facts, at least, 

 v.'c "should conclude, that tiiey were 

 fixed in their credit and publicity. 

 If, after this, we should come to the 

 knowledge of a distinct history, and 

 that also of the same age with the 

 rest, taking up the subject where th.e 

 others had lett it, and carrying on a 

 narrative of the effects prcduced in 

 the world by t'ae extraordinary 

 causes of which we had already been 

 informed, and which effects vub si t 



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