CHRISTIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EVIDENCE ALLEGED FOR OTHER MIRACLES. Propositions stated 40 PROPOSITION I. That there is satisfactory evidence, that many, professing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of conduct ib. CHAP. I.-Evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Christianity, from the nature of the case CHAP. II.-Evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Christianity, from Profane Testimony CHAP. III. Indirect evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Christianity, from the Scriptures and other ancient Christian wri tings CHAP. IV. Direct evidence of the same dence 41 51 56 61 74 PAGE CHAP. VI. That the story, for which the first CHAP. VIII. The same proved, from the au- 78 SECT. I. Quotations of the historical Scrip- SECT. III, The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a distinct volume SECT. IV. And distinguished by appropriate 149 160 tians SECT. VI. Commentaries, &c. were anciently SECT. VII. They were received by ancient Christians of different sects and persuasions 154 SECT. VIII.-The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint 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 consi- dered by the adversaries of Christianity, as containing the accounts upon which the re- SECT. X.-Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published, in all which our SECT. XI.-The above propositions cannot be OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTIN- CHAP. I.-That there is NOT satisfactory evi- dence, 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 CHAP. V.-Originality of Christ's character. 263 CHAP. VI.-Conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture, with the state of things in those times, as repre- sented by foreign and independent accounts 264 CHAP. VII.-Undesigned Coincidences CHAP. V-That the Christian miracles are not recited, or appealed to, by early Christian TO THE HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND JAMES YORK, D. D. LORD BISHOP OF ELY. MY LOKD, 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 deserve 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 may assist, what it hath always been my earnest wish to promote, the 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 puplic principles, I have made the best public return in my power. |