446 ANNTlAL REGISTER, 17&4. 



at this day, we should think the re 

 ality of the origfinal story in no little 

 degree established by this supple- 

 ixiPiit. If subsequent enquiries should 

 brin^ us to our knowledge, one after 

 ai')th?r, letters written by sorne of 

 the principal agents in the business, 

 upon the business, and during the 

 time of their activitv and concern 

 in it, assuming all along and recog. 

 nizing the original story, agitating 

 the questions that arose out ot it, 

 pressing the obligations which re- 

 sulted from it, giving advice and di- 

 rtctions to those who acted upon it, 

 I conceiv? th?it we should find, in 

 every one of those, a stiii farther 

 support to the conclusion we had 

 formed. At present the weight of 

 this successive confirmation is, in a 

 gi^eat measure, iitiperccived by us. 

 I he evidence does rot appear to us 

 what it '.i ; for, being from our in- 

 fancy accustomed to regard the 

 K"vv Testament as one book, we see 

 in it only one testimony. The whole 

 ocriirs So us as a single evidence ; 

 and its different parts, not as distinct 

 attestations, but as different por- 

 tions only of the same. Yet in this 

 conception of the subject we are 

 Certainly mistaken ; for the very dis- 

 crepancies amongst the several do- 

 tuments which form our volume 

 prove, if all other proof was want- 

 ing, that in their original composi- 

 tion they were separate, and most 

 of them independent productions." 

 p. 183. 



This way of stating the nature of 

 the evangelical testimony is certain- 

 ly fair, and to us at least appears 

 novel. The first section of Chap. 

 IX. p. 216. contains nrofessedly an 

 abstract of the most striking matter 

 in Dr. Lardner's admirable volumes 

 on the credibility of the Gospel. 

 " To pursue the detail of proofs 



throughout," savs the author, 

 " would be to transcribe a great 

 part of Dr. Lardner's eleven octavo 

 volumes; to leave the argument 

 without proofs, is to leave it with- 

 out effect, for the persuasion pro- 

 duced by this species of evidence de- 

 pends upon a view and induction of 

 the particulars which compose it.*' 

 Tliis Mr. Paley has performed with 

 judgement and ability, and we shall 

 say without scruple, that in so do- 

 ing, he has performed a very essen- 

 tial service to Christianity ; by giving 

 to the indolent those proofs within 

 a small compass, which, in their 

 whole extent, they would never take 

 the trouble to examine. The nature 

 of this species of evidence is explain- 

 ed with great clearness in the open- 

 ing of this section. 



" The medium of proof stated ni 

 this proposition is, of all others, the 

 most unquestionable, the least liable 

 to any practices of fraud, and is not 

 diminished by the lapse of ages. 

 Bishop Burnet, in the history of his 

 own times, inserts various extracts 

 from lord Clarendon's history. 0ns 

 such insertion is a proof that lord 

 Clarendon's iiistory was extant at 

 the time when bishop Burnet wrote, 

 that it had been read by bishop 

 Burnet, that it was received by 

 bishop Burnft as a work of lord 

 Clarendon's, and also regarded by 

 him as an authentic account of tiie 

 transactions which it relates ; and it 

 will be a proof of these points a 

 thousand years hence, or as long as 

 the books exist. Juvenal having 

 quoted, as Cicero's, that memora- 

 ble line, 



O fortunatam natam me consnle Romam ! 



the quotation would be strong evi- 

 dence) were there any doubt, that 



the 



