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that his readers knew who John was. His rapid parenthetical reference to John's imprisonment, "for John was not yet caft into prifon *," could only come from a writer whofe mind was in the habit of confidering John's imprisonment as perfectly notorious. The defcription of Andrew by the addition "Simon Peter's brother †," takes it for granted that Simon Peter was well known. His name had not been mentioned before. The evangelift's noticing the prevailing mifconftruction of a difcourfe, which Christ held with the beloved difciple, proves, that the characters and the discourse were already public. And the obfervation which these inftances afford, is of equal validity for the purpose of the present argument, whoever were the authors of the hiftories,

THESE four circumftances, firft, the recognition of the account in its principal parts by a series of fucceeding writers; fecondly, the total abfence of any account of the origin of

*John iii. 24.

+ Ibid. i. 40.

Ibid. xxi. 24.

the

the religion substantially different from ours § thirdly, the early and extensive prevalencë of rites and inftitutions, which refult from our account; fourthly, our account bearing, in its construction, proof that it is an account of facts, which were known and believed at the time; are fufficient, I conceive, to support an affurance, that the ftory, which we have now, is, in general, the story which Christians had at the beginning. I fay in general; by which term I mean, that it is the fame in its texture, and in its principal facts. For instance, I make no doubt, for the reasons above stated, but that the refurrection of the founder of the religion was always a part of the Chriftian ftory. Nor can a doubt of this remain upon the mind of any one, who reflects that the refurrection is, in fome form or other, afferted, referred to, or affumed, in every Christian writing, of every description, which hath come down to us.

And if our evidence ftopped here, we should have a strong cafe to offer: for we should have

have to alledge, that, in the reign of Tiberius Cæfar, a certain number of perfons fet about an attempt of establishing a new religion in the world; in the profecution of which purpofe, they voluntarily encountered great dangers, undertook great labours, fuftained great fufferings, all for a miraculous story which they published wherever they came; and that the refurrection of a dead man, whom, during his life, they had followed and accompanied, was a conftant part of this ftory. I know nothing in the above statement which can, with any appearance of reason, be disputed; and I know nothing in the history of the human fpecies fimilar to it.

CHAP.

CHAP. VIII.

There is fatisfactory evidence, that many per fons, profeffing to have beenoriginal witnesses of the Chriftian miracles, paffed their lives in labours, dangers, and fufferings, voluntarily undergone in atteftation of the accounts which they delivered, and folely in confequence of their belief of the truth of thofe accounts; and that they alfo fubmitted, from the fame motives, to new rules of conduct,

THAT the ftory which we have now is, in

the main, the story which the apostles published, is, I think, nearly certain from the confiderations which have been proposed, But whether, when we come to the particu lars and the detail of the narrative, the hif torical books of the New Testament be deferving of credit as hiftories, fo that a fact ought to be accounted true because it is found in them; or whether they are entitled to be confidered as representing the accounts,

which,

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which, true or falfe, the apoftles published whether their authority, in either of thefe views, can be trufted to, is a point which neceffarily depends upon what we know of the books, and of their authors.

Now, in treating of this part of our argument, the first, and a moft material, obfervation upon the subject is, that, fuch was the fituation of the authors to whom the four gofpels are afcribed, that, if any one of the four be genuine, it is fufficient for our purpose. The received author of the firft was an original apoftle and emiffary of the religion. The received author of the fecond was an inhabitant of Jerufalem at the time, to whose house the apoftles were wont to refort, and himself an attendant upon one of the most eminent of that number. The received author of the third was a ftated companion and fellow traveller of the most active of all the teachers of the religion, and in the course of his travels frequently in the fociety of the original apoftles. The received. author of the fourth, as well as of the first,

was

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