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To the charge that "Jesus Christ wrote no account of himself, of his birth, parentage, or any thing else," little need be said. Where Mr. Paine can find one example of auto-biography, it will not be difficult to produce twenty instances, in which such compositions are the work of other people; but is that any reason why such compositions should gain no credit with posterity? If the former afford more opportunity of knowing the truth, it also leaves more suspicion of its being perverted. Self-love will, almost involuntarily, throw a shade over those transactions in which we are conscious of having failed; and give a brilliancy to those, in which we fancy we excelled.

If the history of Jesus Christ, was, "altogether, the work of other people," let it be known, that those "other people" were, what Biographers and Historians seldom are, namely, the companions of him whose life they have written, and the witnesses of all the transactions they have recorded. And these are qualifications that entitle them to implicit belief. If we are to reject such authority, what authority is to be received? We believe Cæsar, when he reports his battles and conquests; and Xenophon when he describes his retreat; and Thucydides when he narrates the circumstances of the Peloponnesian war; and Sallust, when he details the particulars of the Cataline conspiracy; because they relate what they in part saw, and what they in part transacted. We even believe Tacitus, Livy, &c. who record what they had learnt from hearsay, and, frequently, from hearsay upon hearsay. Why, then, shall we dispute the Evangelical history, which stands upon a higher, and firmer ground than any one of these? For that history tells nothing but what the relater saw, and heard himself.

Thus far the Evangelical narrative appears, at least, as credible as that of any profane history that was ever written. The following circumstances will confer upon it, a higher mark of authenticity.

In that narrative, are mentioned many persons whose lives;; are so interwoven in the texture of the story, that

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they cannot be separated from it without destroying its fabric. Those persons did what no one ever did for profane history since the world began; they suffered martyrdom in attestation of its truth. It was not an obstinate adherence to a speculative opinion, nor an ostentatious display of heroic fortitude, in the cause of their country, that led them to death; but a calm, steady zeal in the vindication of facts they had witnessed with their eyes, and ears; and many of which they had assisted to perform. He who will doubt such evidence, must hope to prove every thing by mathematical axioms, and postulates.

We have, besides this, an unbroken chain of testimony which connects those important attestations with the present times; a kind of proof peculiar to the Christian record. And, if more were needed, we have more in the circumstance, that Christianity contained a relation of facts, which every man, to whom it was addressed, was interested to ascertain whether it was true or false; and it was published to a people who would have been glad to have fixed upon it the character of fraud, had it been possible. What profane history ever passed through such an ordeal as this? None. And, therefore, although, "not a line of what is called the New Testament, is of his (Jesus Christ's) own writing," yet, if that Book be not true, all records, registers, chronicles and histories that the world possesses, are false.

I now come to the second part of this Paragraph. Mr. Paine says, that "the account given of his (Jesus Christ's) resurrection and ascension, was the necessary counterpart to the story of his birth. His Historians having brought him into the world in a super-natural manner, were obliged to take him out again in the same manner, or the first part of the story must have fallen to the ground.” This is an assertion of Mr. Paine; bnt where is Mr. Paine's proof? There is none, either deduced from first principles, or drawn from acknowledged precedents. It is one of the dogmatical projectiles of Mr. Paine, which, to the limited eye of ignorance, may appear destined to possessa perpe

tuity of revolution through the zodiac of human belief; but which reason discovers to be retarded every instant in its progress by the atmosphere of truth; and, at no great distance, to fall again into its original quiescence.

So far from "the resurrection and ascension being the necessary counterparts of his birth," theGentiles, to whom Mr. Paine admits the story to have been given, would have been contented without such a sequel, even if the prelude had been invented; for they had, already, a Hercules celestially begotten, whose resurrection was no more affirmed than every one believed it of himself; a belief which was unsupported by a shadow of evidence: and as to his visible ascension," even fable has not imagined it. And, for aught Mr. Paine has shewn to the contrary, if the story of Jesus Christ had been a human invention, his retirement from the world might have been otherwise than by a "visible resurrection and ascension." If they who watched the sepulchre, had lost the body by any means to them unknown (which is pretended by the Jews, although they had appointed a Roman guard, whose strict discipline seldom suffered them to sleep on duty) and no mention had been made of his appearance afterwards, the story, if a story, would have left more room for that speculation, which it is the business of story to excite. It was a dangerous thing to appeal to a fact like that of the resurrection, and call upon five hundred witnesses to attest its truth, if it were the counterpart of a story: and if the resurrection be admitted, the ascension necessarily follows. He who raised himself from the dead could not return again to death; life must be his attribute; and since not here, it must be in heaven.

"The wretched contrivance with which this latter part is told, exceeds every thing that went before it. The first part, that of the miraculous conception, was not a thing that admitted of publicity; and therefore the tellers of this part of the story had this advantage, that though they might not be credited, they could not be detected. They could not be expected to prove it, because it was not one of those things that admitted of proof;

and it was impossible that the person of whom it was told, could prove it himself."

For the evidence in proof of "the miraculous conception," see page 35 &c. In addition to what is there said, little need be advanced here.

It is a truth that has often obtruded itself upon my notice, that there is, in every species of human exertion, a point of excellence, which borders close upon imperfection; and frequently produces the same effects. A very fine penman will often write so well, that his letters can scarcely be deciphered; a mathematical demonstration, is, some times, so profoundly masterly, that a student can, with difficulty, understand it; music many times refines away every note of a familiar tune; and, lastly, to apply these observations to my present purpose, a man may arrive at such a command of language, that his expressions shall have every beauty of point, and antithesis, and yet want plain truth, or common perspicuity. Mr. Paine, to whom much credit is, in general, due for composition, has, in this Paragraph, and some others, arrived at that cloudy point of perfection; particularly when he said, that "the tellers of this part of the story (the miraculous conception) had this advantage, that though they might not be credited, yet they could not be detected." Could not be detected, though they might not be credited? Why, there is no middle point between detection and belief. If the life of the person so pretended to have been begotten, had been unmarked by extraordinary characters, and super-human events, there would arise detection. If it were marked by powers, and transactions, beyond huma nity, there would necessarily follow belief. And, in this case, the model was drawn, the standard was erected, the conduct was prescribed for-divinity; and, unless every tittle of these were fulfilled, detection would have pro claimed a fraud; as they were accomplished belief acknowledged its truth. And they were so minutely accom plished, that even treachery dare not prefer a suspicion

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against them; nor enmity openly confront, and charge them with being a delusion. Do the disciples of Mr. Paine imagine, that if the reverie of Joanna Southcote had ended in the production of a Son, that the world though they might not have credited, could not have detected" her story of a "miraculous conception?" Would the falshood of her assertion, have "been one of those things that would not admit of proof?" Ridiculous absurdity! These are the arrows with which Mr. Paine attacks Religion. They are feathered and pointed well, but they have no weight. They can inflict no wound, and, consequently, can leave no scar. I will tell the disciples of Mr. Paine where their great master has erred. As to the term Revelation he affixed a meaning of his own not countenanced in religion, so, in the miraculous conception, he imagined, that the only anomaly was in the conception itself. He considered it as a story confined simply to that event, and that no after evidence was, or could be given, to seal its truth, or stamp its falshood. Then, indeed, it would have been a thing that admitted not of proof. Then his objections would have strictly applied. But these are unauthorized imaginings of Mr. Paine, neither agreeable to reason, nor conformable with the scriptural record; and, consequently, all his animadversions and objections are irrelevant, and absurd.

"But the resurrection of a dead person from the grave, and his ascensión through the air, is a thing very different, as to the evidence it admits of, to the invisible conception of a child in the womb. The resurrection and ascension, supposing them to have taken place, admitted of public and ocular demonstration, like that of the ascension of a balloon, or the Sun at noon day, to all Jerusalem at least. A thing which every body is required to believe requires, that the proof and evidence of it should be equal to all, and universal; and, as the public visibility of this last related act, was the only evidence that could give sanction to the former part, the whole of it falls to the ground, because that evidence never was given. Instead of this, a small number of persons, not more than eight or nine, are introduced as proxies for the whole world, to say, they saw it, and all

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