themselves at Jerufalem, to decide the question *. That when contentions fprung up among the Corinthians, tho' about matters of much lefs concern, than fuch interpolations as we are now fuppofing; they wrote to Paul himself for his inftructions on the points in difpute between them †. And common fenfe will not permit us to fuppofe, that fo amazing and irreconcileable an inconfiftency between one Gospel and the reft, as the Author's fuppofed interpolation must immediately have occafioned, could poffibly have been obferved, without immediately producing an application to the Apoftle himself, from whom that very Gofpel came.

Thus much therefore is indifputably certain; That fo long as John the Evangelift lived, that is, for the period of Sixty Years after JESUS's afcenfion, no fuch interpolation could be made in either of the Gospels.

Either therefore it must be acknowledged, that the fupernatural particulars made mention of in the gospels, are as genuine as their moral doctrines; or it must be contended, that all the Gofpels were interpolated together, in the manner fuppofed, after the death of John. And this indeed there will be the greater reafon for suppofing, because the gospel of John, as it contains more of our Lord's private conversations with his difciples, fo does it likewife abound more in thofe paffages which the Author would have to be forged, than either of the other three.

To decide at once therefore upon the truth or falfehood of the Author's pofition, the queftion is reduced to this fingle point:-If the four Golpels contained originally nothing more than their prefent moral precepts; was it poffible for every other paffage of the Gospels, as they now stand, † See the Epiftles to the Corinthians.

* Aûs xv.

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to

to have been forged, and interpolated into them, upwards of fixty years after the death of CHRIST?

And to this question we may fafely leave every one, whofe reafon is not actually disturbed, and who feeks really after truth, to give an answer.

To imagine that all the converts to christianity, in every place where the Apostles preached the Gofpel; in Greece, in Italy, and throughout Afia, fhould have heard fome or other of the Gofpels read among them, for a period of thirty or forty years; and all the while have remained fo utterly ignorant of what it was they had been accustomed to hear, as to be unable to perceive the forgery, when a great number of the most unexpected things imaginable were foifted into them; this would indeed be an imagination fo exceedingly abfurd, as to provoke the utmost contempt and ridicule.

But further, the conclufion we have seen fo firmly established from the Gofpels alone, is, if poffible, still more obvious when applied to the Epiftles.

St. Paul's Epiftle to the Galatians was written about twenty years after the death of CHRIST, and fifteen before his own martyrdom; and that to the Romans about five years later; that is, above thirty years before the death of the Evangelift JOHN. And the very end, and design of thefe two Epiftles, but of that to the Romans more efpecially, is, to affert, explain, and confirm, every myfterious, or fupernatural doctrine, any where to be found in all the Gospels; and to explain moreover, the great comprehensive plan of all the divine difpenfations.

What fuppofition then will the Author embrace? for if he writes for truth fome one he muft admit. Will he fuppofe, that all the fupernatural doctrines of thefe Epiftles, that is, almost

the

the whole Epiftles, were forged, and added to the very small moral parts, which he supposes were really St. PAUL'S, within the firft fifteen years after they were written; while St. PAUL himself was yet alive, and even at Rome, to detect the forgery? Or will he fuppofe, that this was done, within the next twenty years, while JOHN the Evangelift was still living; and that no notice was then taken of the introduction of fuch strange and novel doctrines, nor any appeal made to the living Apoftle to be fatisfied of their truth? -Or finally will he fuppofe, that they were not interpolated even till after the death of JOHN ; and that tho' they had been read in the churches to which they were immediately written, and no doubt in feveral others, for upwards of thirty years; that nobody perceived that they contained any thing unheard of before, or that they were at all altered from what they had till that time been*?

'Tis in reality fomewhat difgufting, to be forced to urge arguments against a pofition which neceffa rily includes fuch abfurdities as these. But fince the Author has been hardy enough to lay down the pofition, and endeavoured to defend it, the caufe of true religion requires us to fubmit to the task of explicitly refuting it.

The Author's fundamental principles are, That JESUS was nothing more than a mere man, who

*The Author has once fignified his opinion upon this point. He afferts, (p. 7.) that all thofe paffages, which attri bute any character to JESUS fuperior to that of a mere man, were foifted into his writings (who wrote nothing) amidst the warm difputes with the Jews, after his death.-But is the time when warm difputes are actually on foot, the time for falfifying writings concerned in thofe difputes; if indeed JESUS had actually wrote any thing? The Author was pecu liarly unlucky when he stumbled upon this period for fuch interpolations.

chofe

chose to spend his time in inculcating the duties of morality alone; and confequently, that whatever part of the New Teftament either afferts, or implies any thing more than this, is forged. We will therefore point out to him, tho' he would certainly excufe us the trouble, what this pofition will unavoidably include.

If this were true, every fyllable of what is related in the 1ft, 2d, and 3d chapters of the Gofpels of Luke and Matthew, concerning the miraculous circumstances there faid to have accompanied the births of John the Baptift and Jefus Chrift, and the preaching of John, must have been forged, and added to the original Gofpels of Matthew and Luke, above fixty years after the death of CHRIST; and whenever it was done, all the chriftians must have heard these new and forged relations of fo many miraculous events read publicly in their religious affemblies, without perceiving that any thing was read to them, which they had not always been accustomed to hear read; or been told from the beginning by the Apostles themselves.

If this were true, the account contained in the 2d chapter of Matthew's gofpel, of the arrival of the WISE MEN at Jerufalem, and the remarkable fact occafioned by it; the flaughter of the infants at Bethlehem; must have been a forged account of facts that never happened; added to Matthew's real Gofpel, above fixty years after the death of JESUS; and when this forgery was first read, the chriftians must have listened to it, as a relation of facts that were publicly known to have really come to pafs; and as nothing more than what they had always read and heard, from their first converfion to chriftianity.

4

If

If this were true, none of thofe miracles recorded in the Gofpels, as having been worked by JESUS, or his Apoftles;-as for inftance, the cure of the man born blind *;-reftoring to life the widow of Nain's fon, and Jairus's daughter, and raising Lazarus from the dead; the cure of the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple by Peter and John +; and Peter's cure of Eneas, and his reftoring Dorcas to life ‡, &c. &c. were ever really performed, or even fo much as related in the true original Gofpels, which the Apoftles themselves wrote, and delivered to the churches they had planted; but all these relations must have been forged, and inferted into them, above fixty years after the death of CHRIST; and whenever this was done, the chriftians must have listened to them at hearing them first read, as if they had always heard of them from their first knowledge of the real Gofpels themselves.

If this were true, the accounts given of JESUS's folemn, public declaration to the High Priest, and the Sanhedrim, That he was the Chrift, the Son of God ;-And to Pilate,-That he was the King of the Jews; as well as the declaration of THE JEWS THEMSELVES to Pilate, That he made himself the Son of God Of the Chief Priests having reviled him, upon this very account, as he hung on the crofs-Of the fuperfcription which Pilate caused to be fixed upon the crofs, and the application of the Chief Priests to him concerning it ;-Thefe relations could not have been originally in the Gofpels; but must have been foisted into them above fixty years after the death of CHRIST; and re

*John ix. + Acts iii. + Acts ix. $ Matth. xxvi. 63, 64. Mark xiv. 61, 62. Luke xxii. 70, 71. Matth. xxvii. 11. Mark xv. 2. Luke xxiii. 3. John xix. 7. *Matth. xxvii. 40. Mark XV. 32.

Luke xxiii. 35.