CHRISTIANITY. 



361 



Christ iani- 



The .in. 

 thenticity 

 ot the 

 pieces 

 which 

 nuke up 

 the New 

 Testament. 



The prin- 

 ciple* upon 

 which we 

 aiiM'X ere- 

 dit to the 

 written 

 memorial! 

 ot put 

 age*. 



The case 

 supposed 

 of there 

 being only 

 ne writ- 

 ten memo- 

 rial of past 





The sup- 



extended 

 to two, 

 three, and 

 greater 

 umber. 



lievicg what he has never doubted the history of Alex- 

 ander, and the doctrine of Socrates. Could all the 

 marks of vencity, and the list of subsequent testimo- 

 nies, be exhibited to the eye of the reader in parallel co- 

 lumns, it would enable him, at one glance, to form a 

 complete estimate. We shall have occasion to call his 

 attention to this so often, that we may appear to many 

 of our readers to have expatiated, upon our introductory 

 principle to a degree that is tiresome and unnecessary. 

 We conceive, however, that it is the best and most per- 

 spicuous way of putting the argument. 



30. I. The different pieces which make up the New 

 Testament, were written by the authors whose names 

 they hear, and at the time which is commonly assigned 

 to them. 



31. After the long slumber of the middle ages, the 

 curiosity of the human mind was awakened, and felt its 

 attention powerfully directed to those old writings which 

 have survived the waste of so many qenturies. It were 

 a curious speculation to ascertain the precise quantity of 

 evidence which lay in the information of these old do- 

 cuments. And it may help us in our estimate, first to 

 suppose, that in the researches of that period, there was 

 only one composition found which professed to be a nar- 

 rative of past times. A number of circumstances can 

 be assigned, which might give a certain degree of proba- 

 bility to the information even of this solitary and unsup- 

 ported document. There is, first, the general conside- 

 ration, that the principle upon which a man feels him- 

 self induced to write a true history, is of more frequent 

 and powrful operation, than the principle upon which 

 a man feels himself induced to offer a false or a disgui- 

 sed representation of facts to the world. This affords a 

 general probability on the side of the document in ques- 

 tion being a true narrative ; and there may be some par- 

 ticulars connected with the appearance of the perform- 

 ance it=clf, which might strengthen this probability. 

 We may not be able to discover in the story itself any 

 inducement which the man could have in publishing it, 

 if it were mainly and substantially false. We might ee 

 an repression of honesty, which it is in the power of 

 written language, as well as of spoken language, to con- 

 yey. We might see that there was nothing monstrous 

 or improbable in the narrative itself. And, without enu- 

 merating every particular calculated to give it the im- 

 pression of truth, we may, in the progress of our 

 inquiries, have ascertained, that copies of this manu- 

 script were to be found in many places, and in different 

 parts of the world, proving, by the evidence of its dif- 

 tusion, the general esteem in which it was held by the 

 readers of past ages. This gives us the testimony of 

 these readers to the value of the performance ; and as we 

 are supposing it a history, and not a w rk uf imagina- 

 tion, it could only b? valued on the principle of its be- 

 JTIJT true information which was laid before them. Jn 

 this way, a > ilitary document, transmitted to us from a 

 remote antiquity, might gain credit in the world, though 

 ft had been lost sight of for many ages, and only brought 

 to light by the revival of a literary spirit, which had lain 

 dormant during a long period .if history. 



32. We can farther suppose, that, in the progress of 

 these researches, another manuscript was discovered, ha- 

 ving the same characters, and possessing the same sepa- 

 rate and original marks of truth with the former. If 

 they both touched upon the same period of history, and 

 gave testimony to the same events, it is plain that a 

 stronger evidence for the truth of these events would be 

 afforded, than what it was in the power of either of the 



TOL. VI. PART I. 



testimonies taken separately to supply. The separate 

 circumstances which gave a distinct credibility to each 

 of the testimonies, are added together, and give a so 

 much higher credibility to these points of information 

 up ni which they deliver a common testimony. This is 

 the case when the testimonies carry in them the appear- 

 ance of being independent of one another. And even 

 when the one is derived from the other, it still affords 

 an accession to the evidence, because the author of 

 the subsequent testimony gives us the distinct asser- 

 tion, that he believed in the truth of the original tes- 

 timony. 



33. The evidence may be strengthened still farther, 

 by the accession of a third manuscript, and a third tes- 

 timony. All the separate circumstances winch confer 

 credibility upon any one document, even though it stands 

 alone and unsupported by any other, combine themselves 

 into a much stronger body of evidence, when we have 

 obtained the concurrence of several. If, even in the case 

 of a single narrative, a probability lies on the side of its 

 being true, from the multitude and diffusion of copies, 

 and from the air of truth and honesty discernible in the 

 composition itself, the probability is heightened by the 

 coincidence of several narratives, all of them possessing 

 the same claims upon our belief. If it be improbabk- 

 that one should be written for the purpose of imposing 

 a falsehood upon the world, it is still more improbable 

 that many should be written, all of them conspiring to the 

 same perverse and unnatural object*. No one can doubt, 

 at least, that of the multitude of written testimonies 

 which have come down to us, the true must greatly pre- 

 ponderate over the false; and that I he deceitful principle, 

 though it exists sometimes, would never operate to such 

 an extent, as to carry any great or general imposition 

 in the face of all the documents which are before us. 

 The supposition must be extended much farther than we 

 have yet carried it, before we reach the degree of evi- 

 dence and of testimony, which, on many points of an- 

 cient history, we are at this moment in actual possession 

 of. Many documents have been collected, professing to 

 be Written at different times, and by men of different 

 countries. In this way, a great body of ancient litera- 

 ture has been formed, from which we can collect many 

 points of evidence, too tedious to enumerate. Do we 

 find the express concurrence of several authors to the 

 same piece of history ? Do we find, what is still more 

 impressive, events formally announced in one narrative, 

 not told over again, but implied and proceeded upon a 

 true in another? Do we find the succession of history, 

 through a scries of ages, supported in a way that is na- 

 tural and consistent ? Do we find these compositions 

 which profess a higher antiquity, appealed to by those 

 which profess a lower ? These, and a number of other 

 points, winch meet every scholar who betakes himself 

 to the actual investigation, give a mo^t warm and living 

 character of reality to the history of past times. There 

 is a perversity of mind which may resist all this. There 

 is no end to the fancies of scepticism. We may plead 

 in vain the number of written testimonies ; their artless 

 coincidence, and the perfect undesigncdness of manner 

 by which they often supply the circumstances that ;> -rv: 

 both to guide and satisfy the inquirer, and to throw 

 light and support upon one another. The infidel will 

 still have something, behind which he can entrench him- 

 self ; and Ins last supposition, monstrous and unnatural 

 as it is, may be, that the whole of written history is a 

 laborious fabrication, sustained for many ages, and con- 

 curred in by many individuals, with no other purpoce. 



Christiani- 

 ty- 



The strong 

 evidence 

 we possess 

 for many 

 points of 

 ancient his- 

 tory. 



