CHRISTIANITY. 



377 



Christian!- of, would scarcely have been felt by tiie Christiana, or 

 ff acknowledged by the infidel to otrenginxn the evidence 

 x ""^ 1 '"^* r which we are already in possession of. 



113. But to vary the supposition, let us suppose that 

 the narrative wanted, instead of being the work of a-- ipi>s- 

 tie, had been the work of some other cotemporan , who 

 writes upon his own original knowledge of the subject, 

 but was not BO closely associated with Christ, or his im- 

 mediate disciples, as to have his history admitted in the 

 canonical scriptures. Had this history been preserved, it 

 would have been transmitted to us in a separate state, it 

 would have stood out from among that collection of wri- 

 tings, which passes under the general name of the New 

 Testament, and the additional evidence thus afford-d, 

 would have come down in the form most satisfactory to 

 those with whom we are maintaining our present argu 

 ment. Yet though, in point of form, the testimony might 

 be more satisfactory ; in point of fact, it would be less 

 so. It is the testimony of a less competent witness, a 

 witness who, in the judgment of his cotemporanes, 

 wanted those accomplishments which entitled him to a 

 place in the New Testament. There must be some de- 

 fusion operating upon the understanding, if we think that 

 e. circumstance, which renders an historian less accredi- 

 ted in the eyes of his own age, should render him more 

 accredited in the eyes of posterity. Had Mark been 

 kept out of the New Testament, he would have come 

 down to us in that form, which would have made his 

 testimony more impressive to a superficial enquirer; yet 

 there would be no good reason for keeping him out, but 

 precisely that reason which should n-nder Irs testimony 

 less impressive. We do not complain of this anxiety for 

 more evidence, and as much uf it as possible ; but it is 

 right to be told, that the evidence we have is of far more 

 value than the evidence demanded, and that, .in the con- 

 currence of four canonical narratives, we see a far more 

 effectual argument for the miracles of the New Testa 

 ment, than in any number of those separate and extrane- 

 ous narratives, the want of which is so much felt, and so 

 much complained of. 



114. That the New Testament is not one, but a collec 

 tion of many testimonies, is what has been often said, and 

 often acquiesced in. Yet even after the argument is for 

 mally acceded to, its impression is in felt ; and on this 

 subject there is a great and an obstinate delusion, which 

 not only confirms the infidel in his disregard to Chris 

 tianity, but even veils the strength of the evidence from 

 it* warmest admirers. 



115. There is a difference betwixt a mere narrative and 

 a work of speculation or morality. The latter subjects 

 embrace a wider range, admit a great- r variety of illus- 

 tration, and are quite endless in their application to the 

 new cases that occur in the ever-changing history of hu- 

 man affairs. The subject of a narrative again admits of 

 being exhausted. It ia limited by the number of actual 

 events. True, you may expatiate upon the character or 

 importance of these events, but, in so doing, you drop 

 the office of the pure historian, for that of the politician, 

 or the moralist, or the divine. The evangelists give us 



, a very chasu- and perfect example of the pure narrative. 

 They never appear in their own persons, or arrest the 

 progress of the history for a single moment, by iiiterpo- 

 ing their own wisdom, or their own piety. A gospel 

 i* a bare relation of what has been said or done; and it 

 is evident that, after a few good compositions of thw 

 kin !, . ny future attempts would be superfluous and un- 

 called for. 



116. But, in pomt of fact, these attempts were made. It 

 ii to be sup p ,sed, that, after the singular events of our Sa- 



TOL. Tl. PART I. 



viout's history, the curiosity of the public would be nwa- Christiani- 

 k- ned, and there would be drm<tnd for written accounts 

 ;.f such wonderful transaction*. These written accounts 

 were accordingly brought forward. Even in the inter- 

 val of time betwixt the ascension of our Saviour, and the 

 pubucation of the earliest gospel, such written histories 

 seem to have been frequent. " Many," says St Luke, 

 (and in this he is supported by the testimony of subse- 

 quent writers,) " have taken in hand to set forth in or- 

 der a declaration of these things " Now what has been 

 the fate of all these performances ? Such as might have 

 been anticipated. They k-li into disuse and oblivion. 

 There is no evil design ascribed to the authors of them. 

 They may have been written with perfect integrity, and 

 been useful for a short time, and within a limited circle ; 

 but, as was natural, they all gave way to the superior au- 

 thority, and more complete information of our present 

 narratives. The demand of the Christian world wa 

 withdrawn from the less esteemed, to the more estremed 

 histories of our Saviour. The former ceased to be read, 

 and copies of them would be no longer transcribed or 

 multiplied. We cannot find the testimony we are in 

 quest of, not because it was never given, but because the 

 early Christians, who were the most competent judges of 

 that testimony, did not think it worthy of being trans- 

 mitted to us. 



117. But, though the number of narratives be necessa- 

 rily limited by the nature of the subject, there is no suck 

 limitation upon works of a moral, didactic, or explanatory 

 kind. Many such pieces have come down to us, both 

 from the apostles themselves, and from the earlier father* 

 of the church. Now, though the object of these compo- 

 sitions is not to deliver any narrative of the Christian 

 miracles, they may perhaps give us some occasional inti- 

 mation of them, they may proceed upon their reality. We 

 may gather either from incidental passages, or from the 

 general scope of the performance, that the miracles of 

 Christ and his apostles were recognised, and the divinity 

 of our religion acknowledged, as founded upon these 

 miracles. 



118. The first piece of the kind which we meet with, 

 besides the writings of the New Testament, is an epistle 

 ascrib d to Barnabas, and, at all events, the production 

 of a man, who lived in the days of the apostles. It con- 

 sist" of an exhortation to constancy in the Christian pro- 

 fession, a di su :sivL- from Judaism, and other moral in- 

 structions. We shall only give a quotation of a single 

 clause from this work. " And lie (i. e. our Saviour) 

 making great signs and prodigies to the people of the 

 Jews, they neither believed nor loved him." 



119. The next piece in the succession of Christian wri- 

 ters, is the undoubted epistle of Clement, the bishop of 

 Rome, to the church of Corinth, and who, by the concur- 

 rent voice of all antiquity, is the same Clement who is men- 

 tioned in thf epi-stle to the Philippians, as the fellow-la- 

 bourer of Paul. It is written in the name of the church of 

 Rome, and the object 01 it 13 to compote certain dissensions 

 which had arisen in the church of Corinth. It was out 

 of his way to enter into any thing like a formal narrative 

 of the miraculous facts which are to be found in the 

 evangelical history. The subject of his epistle did not 

 lead him to this ; and besides, the number and authority 

 of the narratives already published, rendered an attempt 

 of this kind altogether superfluous. Still, however, 

 though a miracle may not be formally announced, it may 

 be brought in incidentally, or it may be proceeded upon, 

 or assumed as the basis of an argument. We give one 

 or two examples- of this. In one part of his epistle, 

 he illustrates the doctrine of our resurrection from the 



