450 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1794. 



tain, and would have been nearly 

 so, if the Gospels liad nevtr been 

 written. The Christian story, as 

 to these points, hath never varied. 

 No other haih bteu set up against 

 it. Every letter, every discourse, 

 every controvers^y, amongst the fol- 

 lowers of the religion ; every book 

 written by ihcm, from the age of 

 its commencemcrit to the present 

 time, in every pai t of the world in 

 which it hath been profesbed, and 

 ■with every sect into which it hath 

 been divided, (and we have letters 

 and discourses written by contem- 

 poraries, by witnesses of the tran- 

 saction, by persons themselves bear- 

 ing a share in it, and other writings 

 following that age in regular suc- 

 cession ) fsww/- in representing these 

 facts in this manner. A religion, 

 which now possesses the greatest 

 part of the civilized world, unques- 

 tionably sprang up at Jerusalem at 

 this time. Some account must be 

 iriven of its origin, some cause as- 

 signed for its rise. All the accounts 

 of ibis origin, all the explications 

 of this cause, whether taken from 

 the writings of the early followers 

 of the religion, in which, and in 

 which perhaps alone, it could be 

 expected that they should be dis- 

 tinctly unfolded, or from occasional 

 notices in other writing of that or 

 the adjoining age, either exptessly 

 allege the facts above stated as the 

 means by which the religion was 

 set up, or advert to ito commence- 

 ment in a manner which agrees with 

 the supposition of thcso iacts being 

 true, which renders them probable 

 according to the then state of the 

 word, and which testifies their ope- 

 ration and effects. 



•' These propositions alone lay a 

 foundation for our faith, for they 

 piove the existence of a transaction, 



which cannot even in its most gent' 

 ral parts be accounted for upon any 

 reabonable supposition, except that 

 of the truth of the mission. But 

 the particulars, the dda'tl of the mi- 

 racles or miraculous pretences (for 

 sucli there necessarily must have 

 b'.en) upon which this unexampled 

 transaction rested, and for whick 

 these men acted and suffered as they 

 did act and suffer, it is undoubtedly 

 of great importance to us to know. 

 We have this detail from the foun- 

 tain head, from the persons them- 

 selves ; in accounts written by eye- 

 witnesses of the scene, by contem- 

 poraries, and companions of those 

 who were so ; not in one book, but 

 four, each containing enough for 

 the veiilication of the religion, all 

 agreeing in the fundamental parts of 

 the history. We have the authen- 

 ticity of these books established by 

 more and stronger proofs than be- 

 long to almost any other ancient 

 bonk whatever, and by proofs which 

 widely distinguish them from any 

 others, claiming a similar authority 

 to theirs. If there were any good 

 reason for doubt concerning the 

 names to which these books are as- 

 cribed, (which there ii not, for they 

 were never ascribed to any other, 

 and we have evidence not Ions after 

 their publication of their beating 

 tlic i.arnes which they now bear), 

 their antiquity, of which there is no 

 question, their reputation and au- 

 thority amongst the early disciples 

 of the religion, of which there is 

 as litik, form a valid proof that they 

 must, in the main at least, have 

 agrtcd with what the first, teachers 

 of the religion delivered. 



" When we open these ancient 

 volumes, wc discover in them marks 

 of truth, whether we consider each 

 iu itself, er collate thca^ with one 



another. 



