SECT. II. Of the peculiar respect with which they were quoted SECT. III. The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a dis- SECT. IV. And distinguished by appropriate names and titles of respect 137 SECT. V. Were publicly read and expounded in the religious assemblies SECT. VII. They were received by ancient Christians of different sects SECT. VIII. The four Gospels, the Acts of Apostles, thirteen Epistles of St. Paul, the First Epistle of John, and the First of Peter, were received without doubt by those who doubted concerning the other books of our SECT. IX. Our present Gospels were considered by the adversaries of Christianity, as containing the accounts upon which the religion was SECT. XI. The above propositions cannot be predicated of those books which are commonly called apocryphal books of the New Testament... 163 ON THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT That there is not satisfactory evidence that persons pretending to be original witnesses of any other similar miracles, have acted in the same manner in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in conse- Conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture, with the state of things in those times, as represented by foreign and independent accounts........................................................................ That the Christian miracles are not recited, or appealed to, by early Christian writers themselves, so fully or frequently as might have been expected 341 B. On the Cumulative evidence of the Gospels...... C. On the Dialect of the New Testament.............................. F. On the Connexion of Christianity with the Jewish Scrip- TO THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND JAMES YORK, D.D. LORD BISHOP OF ELY. MY LORD, WHEN, five years ago, an important station in the University of Cambridge awaited your lordship's disposal, you were pleased to offer it to me. The circumstances under which this offer was made, demand a public acknowledgment. I had never seen your lordship; I possessed no connexion which could possibly recommend me to your favour; I was known to you only by my endeavours, in common with many others, to discharge my duty as a tutor in the University; and by some very imperfect, but certainly well intended, and, as you thought, useful publications since. In an age by no means wanting in examples of honourable patronage, although this deserves not to be mentioned in respect of the object of your lordship's choice, it is inferior to none in the purity and disinterestedness of the motives which suggested it. How the following work may be received, I pretend not to foretell. My first prayer concerning it is, that it may do good to any; my second hope, that it may assist what it hath always been my earnest wish to promote-THE B RELIGIOUS PART OF AN ACADEMICAL EDUCATION. If in this latter view it might seem, in any degree, to excuse your lordship's judgment of its author, I shall be gratified by the reflection, that, to a kindness flowing from public principles, I have made the best public return in my power. In the mean time, and in every event, I rejoice in the opportunity here afforded me, of testifying the sense I entertain of your lordship's conduct, and of a notice which I regard as the most flattering distinction of my life. I am, MY LORD, With sentiments of gratitude and respect, Your Lordship's faithful And most obliged servant, 1794. W. PALEY. |