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the exclufive word alone; but that all the inftances which they have recorded of his appearance, are inftances of appearance to his disciples; that their reasonings upon it, and allufions to it, are confined to this fuppofition; and that, by one of them, Peter is made to fay, "Him God raifed up the third day, and fhewed him openly, not to all the people, but to witneffes chofen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rofe from the dead*." The commoneft understanding must have perceived, that the hiftory of the refurrection would have come with more advantage, if they had related that Jefus appeared, after he was rifen, to his foes as well as his friends, to the fcribes and pharifees, the Jewish council, and the Roman governor: or even if they had afferted the public appearance of Christ in general unqualified terms, without noticing, as they have done, the presence of his difciples upon each occafion, and noticing it in fuch a manner as to lead their

Acts x. 40, 41.

readers

readers to fuppofe that none but difciples were present. They could have represented it one way as well as the other. And if their point had been, to have the religion believed, whether true or falfe; if they had fabricated the story ab initio, or if they had been difpofed, either to have delivered their testimony as witneffes, or to have worked up their materials and information as hiftorians, in fuch a manner as to render their narrative as specious and unobjectionable as they could; in a word, if they had thought of any thing but of the truth of the cafe, as they underftood and believed it; they would, in their account of Chrift's several appearances after his refurrection, at leaft have omitted this reftriction. At this diftance of time, the account as we have it is perhaps more credible than it would have been the other way; because this manifestation of the hiftorian's candour, is of more advantage to their tef timony, than the difference in the circumftances of the account would have been to the nature of the evidence. But this is an effect which the evangelists would not foreG4

fee;

fee; and I think that it was by no means the cafe at the time when the books were' compofed.

Mr. Gibbon has argued for the genuinenefs of the Koran, from the confeffions which it contains, to the apparent disadvantage of the Mahometan, cause *. The fame defence vindicates the genuineness of our gofpels, and without prejudice to the cause at all.

There are fome other inftances in which the evangelifts honestly relate what, they must have perceived, would make against them.

Of this kind is John the Baptift's meffage, preferved by St. Matthew and St. Luke, (xi. 2. vii. 18.) "Now when John had heard, in the prison, the works of Christ, he fent two of his difciples, and faid unto him, Art thou he that fhould come, or look we

* Vol. ix. c. 50, note 96.

for

for another?" To confefs, ftill more to ftate, that John the Baptist had his doubts concerning the character of Jefus, could not but afford a handle to cavil and objection. But truth, like honefty, neglects appearances. The fame obfervation, perhaps, holds concerning the apoftacy of Judas*.

* I had once placed amongst thefe examples of fair conceffion, the remarkable words of St. Matthew, in his account of Christ's appearance upon the Galilean mountain: " and when they faw him they worshipped him, but fome doubted*" I have fince, however, been convinced, by what is obferved concerning this paffage in Dr. Townsend's discourse + upon the refurrection, that the transaction, as related by St. Matthew, was really this: "Christ appeared first at a distance; the greater part of the company, the moment they faw him, worshipped, but fome, as yet, i. e. upon this first diftant view of his perfon, doubted; whereupon Christ came up to them, and spake to them," &c. : that the doubt, therefore, was a doubt only at first, for a moment, and upon his being feen at a distance, and was afterwards difpelled by his nearer approach, and by his entering into converfation with them.

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† St. Matthew's words are; Και πρόσελθων ὁ Ιησες ελαλησεν αυτοίς. This intimates, that, when he firft appeared, it was at a distance, at leaft from many of the fpectators. (Ib. p. 197.)

John

"From that time

many

of

John vi. 66. his difciples went back, and walked no more with him." Was it the part of a writer, who dealt in fuppreffion and disguise, to put down this anecdote ?

Or this, which Matthew has preferved, (xiii. 58.)? "He did not many mighty

works there, because of their unbelief."

Again, in the fame evangelift (v. 17, 18.) "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets; I am not come to deftroy, but to fulfil; for, verily, I fay unto you till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, fhall in no wife pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." At the time the gofpels were written, the apparent tendency of Chrift's miffion was to diminish the authority of the Mofaic code, and it was fo confidered by the Jews themfelves. It is very improbable, therefore, that, without the constraint of truth, Matthew should have afcribed a faying to Chrift, which, primo intuitu, militated with the judgment

of

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