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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
CHAP. V.-Observations upon the preceding evi-

dence

41

51

56

61

74

PAGE

CHAP. VI. That the story, for which the first
propagators of Christianity suffered, was mi-
raculous
CHAP. VII.-That it was, in the main, the story
which we have now, proved by indirect con-
siderations

CHAP. VIII. The same proved, from the au-
thority of our historical Scriptures
CHAP. IX. Of the authenticity of the histori-
cal Scriptures, in eleven Sections

78

SECT. I. Quotations of the historical Scrip-
tures by ancient Christian writers

SECT. II. Of the peculiar respect with which

they were quoted

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160

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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.

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