CHRISTIANITY. 



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an authorised persecution by the Roman government ; 

 and all this several year* before the destruction of Jeru- 

 salem, and before Jotrphus composed hit hittory. What- 

 ever opinion may be formed as to the truth of Christiani- 

 ty, certain it it, that its pragrett constituted an object 

 of (uficieot magnitude to compel the attention of any 

 historian who undertook the affairs of that period. How 

 then shall we account for the tcrupulout and determined 

 exclusion of it from the history of Josephus ? Had its 

 miracles been false, this Jewish historian would gladly 

 have exposed them. But its miracles were true, and 

 silence was the only refuge of an antagonist, and his 

 wisest policy. 



104. But though we gather no direct testimony from 

 Josephut, yet his history furnishes us with many satisfy- 

 ing additions to the Christian argument. In the details 

 ofpolicy and manners, he coincides in the main with the 

 writers of the New Testament ; and these coincidences 

 are to numerous, and have so undesigned an appearance, 

 a* to impress on every person, who is at the trouble of 

 making the comparison, the truth of the evangelical 

 story. 



105. If we are to look for direct testimonies to the mi- 

 racles of the New Testament, we must look to that quar- 

 ter, where alone it would be reasonable to expect them, to 

 the writings of the Christian fathers, men who were not 

 Jews or Heathens at the moment of recording their tes- 

 timony ; but who had been Jews or Heathens, and who, 

 in their transition to the ultimate state of Christians, 

 five a stronger evidence of integrity, than if they had 

 believed these miracles, and persisted in a cowardly ad- 

 herence to the safest profession. 



106. We do not undertake to satisfy every demand of 

 the infidel. We think we do enough, if we prove that the 

 thing demanded is most unlikely, even though the mi- 

 racles should be true ; and therefore that the want of it 

 carries no argument against the truth of the miracles. 

 But we do still more than this, if we prove that the tes- 

 timonies which we actually possess are much stronger 

 than the testimonies he is in quest of. And who can 

 doubt this, when he reflects, that the true way of put- 

 ting the case betwixt the testimony of the Christian fa- 

 ther, which we do have, and the testimony of Tacitus, 

 which we do not have, in, that the latter would be an as- 

 sertion not followed up by that conduct, which would 

 have been the best evidence of its sincerity. Whereas, 

 the former is an assertion substantiated by the whole life, 

 and by the decisive fact of the old profession having been 

 renounced, and the new profession entered into, a 

 change where disgrace, and danger, and martyrdom were 

 the consequences. 



107. Let us, therefore, enter into an examination of 

 these testimonies. 



108. This subject has been in part anticipated, when we 

 treated of the authenticity of the books of the New Tes- 

 tament. We have quotations and references to these 



' t books from five apostolic fathers, the companions of the 

 original writers. We have their te^imonies sustained 

 and extended by their immediate successors ; and as we 

 pursue this crowded series of testimonies downwards, 

 they become so numerous, and so explicit, as to leave no 

 doubt on the mind of the inquirers, that the different 

 books of the New Testament arc the publications of the 

 authort, whose names they bear ; and were received by 

 the Chrittian world, at books of authority from the first 

 period of their appearance. 



109. Now, every sentence in a Christian father, expres- 

 sive of rc.pt ct for a buck in the New Testament, it alto 

 cxpreuire of hit fajth in its coutcou. It ii equivalent to 



his testimony for the miracles recorded 1.1 it. In the Christuw- 

 language of the law, it it an act by which he homolo- _'T- 

 gates toe record, and superinduces his own testimony to ^^ "Y"' 

 that of the original writers. It would be vain to at- 

 tempt speaking of all these testimonies. It cost the me- 

 ritorious Lardner many years to collect them. They 

 are exhibited in his credibility of the new Testament ; 

 and in the multitude of them, we see a power and a va- 

 riety of evidence for the Christian miracles, which is 

 quite unequalled in the whole compass of ancient hio- 

 tory. 



110. But, in addition to these testimonies in the gross, 

 for the truth of the evangelical history, have we no distinct 

 testimonies to the individual facts which compose it ? 

 We have no doubt of the fact, that Barnabas was ac- 

 quainted with the gospel by Matthew, and that he sub- 

 scribed to all the information contained in that history. 

 This is a most valuable testimony from a cotemporary 

 writer ; and a testimony which embraces all the miracles 

 narrated by the evangelist. But, in addition to this, we 

 should like if Barnabas, upon his own personal convic- 

 tion, could assert the reality of any of these miracles. 

 It would be multiplying the original testimonies ; for he 

 was a companion and a fellow-labourer of the apostles. 

 We should have been delighted, if, in the course of our 

 researches into the literature of past times, we had met 

 with an authentic record, written by one of the five hun- 

 dred, that arc said to have seen our Saviour after his re- 

 surrection, and adding his own narrative of this event t 

 the narratives that have already come down to us. Now. 

 is any thing of this kind to be met with in ecclesiastical 

 antiquity ? How much of this kind of evidence are we 

 in actual possession of? and if we have not enough to 

 satisfy our keen appetites for evidence on a question of 

 such magnitude, how is the want of it to be accounted 

 for? 



111. Let it be observed, then, that of the twenty-sevea 

 books which make up the New Testament, five are nar- 

 rative or historical, viz. the four Gospels, and the Act* 

 of the Apostles, which relate to the life and miracles of 

 our Saviour, and the progress of his religion through 

 the world, for a good many years after his ascension in- 

 to heaven. All the rest, with the exception of the gos- 

 pel by St John, are doctrinal or admonitory ; and their 

 main object is to explain the principles of the new reli- 

 gion, or to impress its duties upon the numerous prose- 

 lytes who had even at that early period been gained over 

 to the profession of Christianity. 



112. Besides what we have in the New Testament, n 

 other professed narrative of the miracles of Christianity ha* 

 come down to us, bearing the marks of an authentic com- 

 position by any apostle, or any cotemporary of the apostle*. 

 Now, to those who regret this circumstance, we beg leave 

 to submit the following observations. Suppose that one 

 other narrative of the life and miracles of our Saviour 

 had been composed, and, to give all the value to this ad- 

 ditional testimony of which it is susceptible, let us sup- 

 pose it to be the work of an apostle. By this last cir- 

 cumstance, we secure to its uttermost extent the advan- 

 tage of an original testimony, the testimony of another 

 eye-witness, and constant companion of our Saviour. 

 Now, we ask, what would have been the fate of this per- 

 formance ? It would have been incorporated into the 

 New Testament along with the other gospels. It may 

 have been the gospel according to 1'hilip. It may have 

 been the gospel according to Bartholomew. At all 

 events, the whole anv-unt of the advantage would have 

 been tlie substitution of live gospels instead of four, and 

 this addition, the want of which is so much complained 



