But this reduces the whole almost to a matter of demonstration in favour of their genuineness, as Bishop Marsh proceeds to shew by examining each case in detail; for it is next to impossible that the Christian communities at Rome, Corinth, in Galatia, at Ephesus, Philippi, Colosse, and Thessalonica, could be imposed upon. These epistles are abundantly quoted in the middle of the second century, and partially so in the works assigned to the apostolic fathers at its commencement. They were, therefore, no secret, and a considerable time must have elapsed ere they could have spread so widely; and that, within so very short a time of the death of St. Paul as this brings us to, specious documents should impose upon all the Christians, without any exception, that every one of these cities should be deceived, is wholly incredible. Some trace of doubt must have remained in case of imposture. And now take the whole cumulative weight in favour of the genuineness of these documents together; consider the circumstances under which they are transmitted to us; the deep interest the Christians had at stake; their sincerity, proved in death; their means of ascertaining the truth; the care they took in so doing; their full testimony; the very nature of the documents as Christian Laws demanding obedience; the high reverence paid them as inspired; and that they received that obedience and reverence in places also where imposture could most easily have been detected;

consider again, the language of these writings; the peculiar style of each author; the character of the author as manifested from them; their agreement with fact, and with each other; their having never yet been proved spurious, notwithstanding the extent of subject they embrace; the persons who have studied them, and the time which has elapsed, and their undesigned coincidence ;-and you must conclude they are the productions of those whose names they bear.

CONVERSATION X.

MR. B.

As the greatest stress will be laid upon the genuineness of the books of the New Testament, if you have any objection to make to the conclusion drawn in our last conversation, you must state it now.

BEATRICE.

I cannot see how that conclusion can be evaded.

EDWARD.

Nor I; unless it be on the grounds that we have no account of these authors by contemporaries.

MR. B.

I might have recourse to the works of the apostolic fathers to answer this objection; but as some doubt is attached to the genuineness of the writings ascribed to them, I shall not. On what grounds, however, do you believe that such men as Cæsar and Cicero lived, and wrote the books commonly ascribed to them?

EDWARD.

There are accounts of them by contemporary writers, and their works have been transmitted to us as genuine by those who must have been able to decide. The testimony of Sallust alone would be sufficient to establish the fact.

MR. B.

But how would you establish the existence of Sallust, and the genuineness of the works ascribed to him?

By similar means.

EDWARD.

MR. B.

Then are you not placed in the same situation with regard to Cicero, Cæsar, and Sallust, as we are with regard to the writers of the New Testament?

EDWARD.

Not exactly; for the books of the New Testament all form one system of religion, the parts of which might naturally be expected to support each other.

MR. B.

But would not the same argument have applied to the Roman authors just mentioned, had it become expedient to unite their works in a similar manner? The New Testament is now regarded as one work; but you must always bear in mind, that it is, in fact, a collection of the works of eight authors, and that these writings are asserted to have been produced in different countries, with different objects; and that it was only the immense weight attached to their authority which occasioned their being collected and separated so decisively from all other works as we now see them.

EDWARD.

But is it not assuming too much that they certainly are the works of different authors?

MR. B.

Would you believe that Sallust wrote the various works of Cicero and the Commentaries of Cæsar?

EDWARD.

Certainly not: it is impossible.

MR. B.

Not more impossible than that St. John should have written the narratives of St. Luke, St. Matthew, and St. Mark, the Epistles of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. James, and St. Jude. If the unanimous testimony of all subsequent writers establish the facts in the one case, so they do in the other; if the internal evidence makes the idea of forgery absurd in the one case, so it does in the other.

EDWARD.

But Cicero is an author sui generis; no one but Cicero could have written the works ascribed to him.

MR. B.

And so is St. Paul an author sui generis; and the impossibility attached to the forgery of works ascribed to him is as evident as that in a similar supposition with regard to the works of Cicero.