I MAKE this candour to consist, in their putting down many passages, and noticing many circumstances, which no writer whatever was likely to have forged; and which no writer would have chosen to appear in his book, who had been care ful to present the story in the most unexceptionable form, or who had thought himself at liberty to carve and mould the particulars of that story, according to his choice, or according to his judgment of the effect.

A strong and well-known example of the fairness of the evangelists, offers itself in their acJohn v. 13; vi. 15. unanimously stating, that after he was risen, he count of Christ's resurrection, namely, in their appeared to his disciples alone. I do not mean

Or this, which Matthew has preserved? (xii. 58:) "He did not many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.""

ble, therefore, that without the constraint of truth, Matthew should have ascribed a saying to Christ, which, primo intuitu, militated with the judg ment of the age in which his Gospel was written, Marcion thought this text so objectionable that he altered the words, so as to invert the sense. ¶

that they have used the exclusive word alone; | John vi. 66. "From that time, many of his but that all the instances which they have record-disciples went back, and walked no more with ed of his appearance, are instances of appearance him." Was it the part of a writer, who dealt in to his disciples; that their reasonings upon it, and suppression and disguise, to put down this anecallusions to it, are confined to this supposition; dote? and that, by one of them, Peter is made to say, "Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and Again, in the same evangelist: (v. 17, 18:) drink with him after he rose from the dead."*"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or The most common understanding must have the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to perceived, that the history of the resurrection fulfil: for, verily I say unto you, till heaven and would have come with more advantage, if they earth pass, one jot, or one tittle, shall in no wise had related that Jesus appeared, after he was pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." At the risen, to his foes as well as his friends, to the time the Gospels were written, the apparent tenScribes and Pharisees, the Jewish council, and dency of Christ's mission was to diminish the the Roman governor; or even if they had asserted authority of the Mosaic code, and it was so conthe public appearance of Christ in general uquali-sidered by the Jews themselves. It is very improbafied terms, without noticing, as they have done, the presence of his disciples on each occasion, and noticing it in such a manner as to lead their readers to suppose that none but disciples were present. They could have represented it in one way as well as the other. And if their point had been, to have the religion believed, whether true or false; if they had fabricated the story ab initio; or if they had been disposed either to have deliver ed their testimony as witnesses, or to have worked up their materials and information as historians, in such 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 case, as they understood and believed it; they would, in their account of Christ's several appearances after his resurrection, at least have omitted this restriction. At this distance 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 historians' candour, is of more advantage to their testimony, than the difference in the circumstances of the account would have been to the nature of the evidence. But this is an effect which the evangelists would not foresce: and I think that it was by no means the case at the time when the books were com

posed.

There are some other instances in which the evangelists honestly relate what, they must have perceived, would make against them.

Once more: (Acts xxv. 18, 19:) "They brought none accusation against him, of such things as I supposed, but had certain questions against him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead, whoin Paul affirmed to be alive." Nothing could be more in the character of a Roman governor than these words. But that is not precisely the point I am concerned with. A mere panegyrist, or a dishonest narrator, would not have represented his cause, or have made a great magistrate represent it, in this manner; i. e. in terms not a little disparaging, and bespeaking, on his part, much unconcern and indifference about the matter. The same observation may be repeated of the speech which is ascribed to Gallio, (Acts xviii. 15.) If it be a question of words and names, and of your law, look ye to it; for I will be no judge of such matters."

Lastly, where do we discern a stronger mark of candour, or less disposition to extol and magnify, than in the conclusion of the same history? in which the evangelist, after relating that Paul, on his first arrival at Rome, preached to the Jews from morning until evening, adds, " And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not."

The following, I think, are passages which were very unlikely to have presented themselves to the mind of a forger or a fabulist.

Of this kind is John the Baptist's message, pre-mountain: "And when they saw him, they worshipped Served by Saint Matthew, (xi. 2,) and Saint him; but some doubted." I have since, however, been Luke (vii. 18): Now when John had heard in convinced by what is observed concerning this pas the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his sage in Dr. Townshend's discourses upon the resurdisciples, and said unto him, Art thou he that rection, that the transaction, as related by Saint Matshould come, or look we for another?" To con- thew, was really this: "Christ appeared first at a disfess, still more to state, that John the Baptist had they saw him, worshipped, but some, as yet, i. e. upon his doubts concerning the character of Jesus, the first distant view of his person, doubted; wherecould not but afford a handle to cavil and objec-upon Christ came up to them, and spake to them," &c. : tion. But truth, like honesty, neglects appear-moment, and upon his being seen at a distance, and

concerning the apostacy of Judas.

*Acts x. 40, 41.

† Vol. ix. c. 50. note 96.

tance; the greater part of the company, the moment

that the doubt, therefore, was a doubt only at first, for a

§ Page 177.

his entering into conversation with them.
1 Chap. xxviii. 17.
Saint Matthew's words are, Key o Inmouc,
XANTHY CUTE. This intimates, that, when he first

1 I had once placed amongst these examples of fair appeared, it was at a distance, at least from many of concession, the remarkable words of Saint Matthew, in the spectators.-Ib. p. 197.

his account of Christ's appearance upon the Galilean

Lardner, Cred. vol. xv. p. 422.

had heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can bear it ?"

Matt. xxi. 21. "Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is Christ's taking of a young child, and placing it done unto the fig-tree, but also, if ye shall say in the midst of his contentious disciples, (Matt. unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be xviii. 2,) though as decisive a proof as any could thou cast into the sea, it shall be done; all things be, of the benignity of his temper, and very exwhatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, it pressive of the character of the religion which he shall be done." It appears to me very improba-wished to inculcate, was not by any means an ble that these words should have been put into obvious thought. Nor am I acquainted with Christ's mouth, if he had not actually spoken any thing in any ancient writing which resemthem. The term "faith," as here used, is perhaps bles it. rightly interpreted of confidence in that internal notice, by which the apostles were admonished of their power to perform any particular miracle, And this exposition renders the sense of the text more easy. But the words, undoubtedly, in their obvious construction, carry with them a difficulty, which no writer would have brought upon hinself officiously.

Luke ix. 59. "And he said unto another, Follow me: but he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God." This answer, though very expressive of the transcendent importance of religious concerns, was apparently harsh and repulsive; and such as would not have been made for Christ, if he had not really used it. At least some other instance would have been chosen. The following passage, I, for the same reason, think impossible to have been the production of artifice, or of a cold forgery:- -"But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell-fire (Gehenna)." Matt. v. 22. It is emphatic, cogent, and well calculated for the purpose of impression; but is inconsistent with the supposition of art or wariness on the part of the relater.

The short reply of our Lord to Mary Magdalen, after his resurrection, (John xx. 16, 17,) "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended unto my Father," in my opinion, must have been founded in a reference or allusion to some prior conversation, for the want of knowing which, his meaning is hidden from us. This very obscurity, however, is a proof of genuineness. No one would have forged such an answer.

The account of the institution of the eucharist bears strong internal marks of genuineness. If it had been feigned, it would have been more full; it would have come nearer to the actual mode of celebrating the rite, as that mode obtained very early in Christian churches; and it would have been more formal than it is. In the forged piece, called the Apostolic Constitutions, the apostles are made to enjoin many parts of the ritual which was in use in the second and third centuries, with as much particularity as a modern rubric could have done. Whereas, in the History of the Lord's supper, as we read it in Saint Matthew's Gospel, there is not so much as the command to repeat it. This, surely, looks like undesignedness. I think also that the difficulty arising from the conciseness of Christ's expression," This is my body," would have been avoided in a made-up story. I allow that the explication of these words, given by protestants, is satisfactory; but it is deduced from a diligent comparison of the words in question with forms of expression used in Scripture, and espe cially by Christ upon other occasions. No writer would arbitrarily and unnecessarily have thus cast in his reader's way a difficulty, which, to say the least, it required research and erudition to clear up.

Now it ought to be observed, that the argument which is built upon these examples, extends both to the authenticity of the books and to the truth of the narrative: for it is improbable that the forger of a history in the name of another should have inserted such passages into it: and it is improbable also, that the persons whose names the books bear should have fabricated such passages; or even have allowed them a place in their work, if they had not believed them to express the truth.

The following observation, therefore, of Dr. John vi. The whole of the conversation re- Lardner, the most candid of all advocates, and the corded in this chapter, is, in the highest degree, most cautious of all inquirers, seems to be wellunlikely to be fabricated, especially the part of founded:-" Christians are induced to believe the our Saviour's reply, between the fiftieth and the writers of the Gospel, by observing the evidences fifty-eighth verse. I need only put down the first of piety and probity that appear in their writings, sentence: "I am the living bread which came in which there is no deceit, or artifice, or cunning, down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, or design." "No remarks," as Dr. Beattie hath he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will properly said, " are thrown in, to anticipate obgive him is my flesh, which I will give for thejections; nothing of that caution which never life of the world." Without calling in question fails to distinguish the testimony of those who are the expositions that have been given of this pas-conscious of imposture; no endeavour to reconcile sage, we may be permitted to say, that it labours the reader's mind to what may be extraordinary under an obscurity, in which it is impossible to in the narrative." believe that any one, who made speeches for the persons of his narrative, would have voluntarily involved them. That this discourse was obscure, even at the time, is confessed by the writer who had preserved it, when he tells us, at the conclusion, that many of our Lord's disciples, when they

See also chap. xvii. 20. Luke xvii. 6. † Bee also Matt. viii. 21.

I beg leave to cite also another author,* who has well expressed the reflection which the examples now brought forward were intended to suggest. "It doth not appear that ever it came into the mind of these writers, to consider how this or the other action would appear to mankind, or what objections might be raised upon them.

* Duchal, p. 97, 98.

But without at all attending to this, they lay the facts before you, at no pains to think whether they would appear credible or not. If the reader will not believe their testimony, there is no help for it: they tell the truth, and attend to nothing else. Surely this looks like sincerity, and that they published nothing to the world but what they believed themselves.”

As no improper supplement to this chapter, I crave a place here for observing the extreme naturalness of some of the things related in the New Testament.

St. Matthew, who was an inhabitant of Galilee, and did not join Christ's society until some time after Christ had come into Galilee to preach, has given us very little of his history prior to that period. Saint John, who had been converted before, and who wrote to supply omissions in the other Gospels, relates some remarkable particulars, which had taken place before Christ left Judea, to go into Galilee.*

Saint Matthew (xv. 1) has recorded the cavil of the Pharisees against the disciples of Jesus, for eating "with unclean hands." St. Mark has also Mark ix. 23. "Jesus said unto him, If thou (vii. 1) recorded the same transaction (taken procanst believe, all things are possible to him that bably from St. Matthew), but with this addition; believeth. And straightway the father of the "For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they child cried out, and said, with tears, Lord, I be-wash their hands often, eat not, holding the tralieve; help thou mine unbelief." This struggle dition of the elders: and when they come from in the father's heart, between solicitude for the the market, except they wash, they eat not: and preservation of his child, and a kind of involuntary many other things there be which they have redistrust of Christ's power to heal him, is here ex-ceived to hold, as the washing of cups and pots, pressed with an air of reality, which could hardly be counterfeited.

Again, (Matt. xxi. 9,) the eagerness of the people to introduce Christ into Jerusalem, and their demand, a short time afterward, of his crucifixion, when he did not turn out what they expected him to be, so far from affording matter of objection, represents popular favour in exact agreement with nature and with experience, as the flux and reflux

of a wave.

The rulers and Pharisees rejecting Christ, whilst many of the common people received him, was the effect which, in the then state of Jewish prejudices, I should have expected. And the reason with which they who rejected Christ's mission kept themselves in countenance, and with which also they answered the arguments of those who favoured it, is precisely the reason which such men usually give" Have any of the scribes or Pharisees believed on him ?"—John vii. 48.

In our Lord's conversation at the well, (John iv. 29,) Christ had surprised the Samaritan woman with an allusion to a single particular in her domestic situation, "Thou hast had five husbands; and he, whom thou now hast, is not thy husband." The woman, soon after this, ran back to the city, and called out to her neighbours, "Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did." This exaggeration appears to me very natural; especially in the hurried state of spirits into which the woman may be supposed to have been thrown.

The lawyer's subtilty in running a distinction upon the word neighbour, in the precept, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," was no less natural, than our Saviour's answer was decisive and satisfactory.-Luke x. 29. The lawyer of the New Testament, it must be observed, was a Jewish divine.

brazen vessels, and of tables." Now Saint Matthew was not only a Jew himself, but it is evident, from the whole structure of his Gospel, especially from his numerous references to the Old Testament, that he wrote for Jewish readers. The above explanation, therefore, in him, would have been unnatural, as not being wanted by the readers whom he addressed. But in Mark, who, whatever use he might make of Matthew's Gospel, intended his own narrative for a general circulation, and who himself travelled to distant countries in the service of the religion, it was properly added.

CHAPTER IV.

Identity of Christ's Character.

THE argument expressed by this title, I apply principally to the comparison of the first three Gospels with that of Saint John. It is known to every reader of Scripture, that the passages of Christ's history, preserved by Saint John, are, except his passion and resurrection, for the most part, different from those which are delivered by the other evangelists. And I think the ancient account of this difference to be the true one, viz. that Saint John wrote after the rest, and to supply what he thought omissions in their narratives, of which the principal were our Saviour's conferences with the Jews of Jerusalem, and his discourses to his apostles at his last supper. But what I observe in the comparison of these several accounts is, that, although actions and discourses are ascribed to Christ by Saint John, in general different from what are given to him by the other evangelists, yet, under this diversity, there is a similitude of manner, which indicates that the actions and discourses proceeded from the same person. I should have laid little stress upon the repetition of actions substantially alike, or of discourses containing many of the same expressions, because that is a species of resemblance, which would either belong to a true history, or might easily be imitated in a false one. Nor do I deny, that a dramatic writer There are also some properties, as they may be is able to sustain propriety and distinction of called, observable in the Gospels: that is, cir- character, through a great variety of separate incumstances separately suiting with the situa-cidents and situations. But the evangelists were tion, character, and intention, of their respective authors.

The behaviour of Gallio (Acts xviii. 12-17), and of Festus (xxv. 18, 19), have been observed upon already.

The consistency of St. Paul's character throughout the whole of his history (viz. the warmth and activity of his zeal, first against, and then for, Christianity), carries with it very much of the appearance of truth.

*Hartley's Observations, vol. ii. p. 103.

Luke xiii. 1-3. “ There were present at that Matt. xii. 47-50. "Then they said unto him, season, some that told him of the Galileans, whose Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand with-blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; and out desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren: for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in hearen, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."