*

imputations or epithets, or any attempt to prepoffefs the reader against them. Objections to the doctrine and conduct of Christ are accurately ftated: and the only folicitude of the writers, if any be manifeft, is to tell concifely, but faithfully, fome interefting paffages in his life and history.

FOURTHLY, The utmost candour and honefty are obfervable in recording their own errors and failings. They expofe, without fcruple, the bigotry, the incapacity, the cowardice, the difingenuoufnefs, the inconfistency of the difciples, that is, of themselves and their partizans. The doubts § they entertained concerning the conduct and pretenfions of their Mafter, their jealousy of cach other, the ambition of James and John,

the

* A ftriking inftance of the candour of the Evangelifts is given by Michaelis, p. 64. Every impartial reader cannot fail to remark the pains they have taken to do justice to the attempts made by Pilate, in order to fave the life of Jesus. See Dr. White's Diatellaron, pp. 275-282.

Matth. ix. 3, 34. xi. 3. xii. 2, 24. xiii. 54, &c. xxvii. 42, 63. xxviii. 13. Mark iii. 21, 22. Luke vii. 34, 39. xi. 38. xix. 7. John vii. 5, 12, 15, 20. x. 20.

This fubject, which is connected with what immediately follows, will be opened more fully in the third chapter. I fhall content myself at prefent with referring to diftinct paffages in proof of each affertion, and in the order in which they here ftand. Vide Luke ix. 54. Acts iv. 13. Mark xiv. 50. Galatians ii. II. Mark viii. 14-21.

For proofs of thefe affertions, fee Matth. xvii. 20. Luke ix. 46. Matth. xx. 20. Luke xxii. 61. and Galatians, ubi Acts xv. 39.

fupra. John xx. 25.

the apoftacy and diffimulation of Peter, the incredulity of Thomas, the difpute between Paul and Barnabas, are recorded with an air of impartiality and integrity, which baffles fufpicion, and invites the strictest confidence.

FIFTHLY, The history that is contained in the Gospels, and in the Acts, extraordinary as it is, and exhibiting the different, and even oppofite, conduct of the fame men at different times, is perfectly consistent in all it's parts, if we admit the bafis upon which that history refts. But if we difcredit the miraculous part of the history, it will be equally impoffible, to affign a reason why fuch a story should have been fo invented; and to reconcile with any known principles of human action the conduct of the agents. The miracles are fo connected with the narrative, that if we reject the belief of them, it will be extremely difficult to find arguments of fufficient force to convince us that Jefus claimed the title of the Meffiah,

and

An obfervation of fimilar import, made by Lord Bolingbroke with refpect to the Old Teftament, is applied to an excellent purpose by the Bishop of Lincoln, in his Elements of Chriftian Theology, Vol. I. p. 50.

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and that any were found among the Jews to admit his pretenfions.

SIXTHLY, Another mark of truth difcernible in the writings of the facred hiftorians, is the exact preservation of character; whether the marks of identity be traced in the actions and discourses of the fame individual, in the various occafions upon which he is introduced; or whether the features of the different actors, as delineated by these writers, correfpond with the lineaments of the fame perfons, as they are preserved in undoubted fources of information.

Ir has ever been confidered as a requifite, in fictitious compofitions*, that the characters fhould not only have the distinguishing marks of the peculiar fituation, and circumstances, in which they are supposed to be placed, but that a confiftency fhould be ftrictly observed throughout the fame character; and if the perfon thus represented, be brought from real life, it is invariably required, that he fhould bear fome visible marks of those qualities, which history or fame has already affigned him. This is ab

folutely

Horat. Art. Poet. vv. 105. 112. 119. 126, 156, &c. See

alfo Ariftot. Rhetor. b. ii, c. 12.

folutely neceffary in order to render fiction probable. And the nearer the approach is made to these previous requifites, the more is the merit of the writer enhanced, and the interest of the compofition heightened. Now certainly, the qualities that are necefsary to render a profeffed fiction probable, are indispensably required to make that, which profeffes to record real transactions authentic. And as a deficiency in those qualifications would detract from the credibility of any narrative, fo the exact adherence to them, under circumstances, where it is highly improbable, that the art or invention of the writer could have supplied these marks of truth, muft in a great degree, if not decifively, confirm it's claim to the title of true history.

It is fcarcely poffible to conceive a wider compass of subject, and confequently one more unfavourable to the genius of fiction, than what is comprehended in the historical writings of the New Teftament. Not only are Jews introduced of various ranks and ages, from the chiefs of the Sanhedrim, the expounders of the law, and the leaders of the fects, to the humble fishermen, the companions of Jefus, and even to characters ftill lower,

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lower, thofe whom the contagion of difeafe, or the scandal of their vices had driven from the comforts of focial life; but we also hear the difcourfes, and obferve the actions, of heathens, widely differing from each other in the qualities of their hearts, in the endowments of the mind, in condition and in occupation.-Nor is the scene confined to a fingle nation or country, but we are tranfported from Jerufalem to Athens, from the refidence of those, who cultivated no other knowledge than that of their own law and traditions, to the centre of heathen learning and taste, and of heathen fuperftition too and idolatry. From Athens, and from Corinth, and from Ephefus, the feats of every improvement in the arts of civilized life, we are conveyed to the rude and uncivilized barbarians on the fhores of Melita*. By fea and by land we accompany the adventurous voyagers, amidst scenes, in which they appear to the astonished spectators, as gods defcended from heaven-or when they seem to the deluded multitude,

as

* I accede to the opinion of the learned Mr. Bryant, and Ignatius Georgius, that the ifland, on which St. Paul was shipwrecked, was Melite Illyrica: though I am aware, that the contrary hypothefis has been maintained with great ability by Walchius, in his Commentary De Deo Melitenfium, publifhed at Jena 1753.