rished fuch a law-giver as JESUS CHRIST, who founded that Religion fo many nations have espoused, and who instituted those folemnities and cuftoms we fee univerfally obferved by all who profess his gospel.

SECT. II.

That the Evangelifts have written a true bistory.

WE have the fame reason to believe that

the Evangelifts have given us a true hif tory of the life and transactions of Jesus, as we have to believe that Xenophon and Plato have given us a faithful and juft narrative of the character and doctrines of the excellent Socrates. The facred writers were, in every respect, qualified for giving a real circumstantial detail of the life and religion of the person whose memoirs they have tranfmitted down to us. They were the select companions and familiar friends of the heroe of their story. They had free and liberal access to him at all times. They attended his public difcourfes, and in his moments of retirement he unbofomed his whole foul to them without disguise. They were daily witneffes of his fincerity and goodness of heart. They were spectators of the amazing operations he performed, and of the filent unoftentatious manner in which he performed them. In private he explained to them the doctrines of his religion in the moft familiar endearing converfe, and gradually initi

ated

ated them into the principles of his gofpel, as their Jewish prejudices admitted. Some of thefe writers were his infeparable attendants, from the commencement of his public miniftry to his death, and could give the world as true and faithful a narrative of his character and inftructions, as Xenophon was enabled to publish of the life and philofophy of Socrates. If Plato hath been deemed in every refpect qualified to compose an historical account of the behaviour of his divine master in his imprisonment, of the philofophic difcourfes he addreffed to his friends, before he drank the poisonous bowl, as he conftantly attended him in thofe unhappy fcenes, was prefent at thofe mournful interviews *-In like manner was the apostle John equally fitted for compiling a juft and genuine narration of the laft confolatory discourses our Lord delivered to his dejected followers, a little before his last fufferings, and of the unhappy exit he made, with its attendant circumftances, of which he was a perfonal spectator. The foundation of these things cannot be invalidated without invalidating the faith of history. No writers have enjoyed more propitious, few have ever enjoyed fuch favourable opportunities for publishing just accounts of perB 4

fons

Quid dicam de Socrate, says Cicero, cujus morti illachrymari foleo, Platonem legens. De natura De orum, p. 329. Edit. Davies, 1723. See alfo Plato's Phædo, paffim. particularly page 311, 312. Edit. Forfter. Oxon., 1752. and Xenophon's Apology, P. 345. Edit. Oxon. 1741.

fons and things as the evangelifts. Most of the Greek and Roman hiftorians lived long after the perfons they immortalize, and the events they record. The facred writers commemorate actions they faw, discourses they heard, persecutions they Supported, defcribe characters with which they were familiarly converfant, and transactions and fcenes in which they themselves were intimately interested. The pages of their history are impreffed with every feature of credibility.

An

artless fimplicity characterizes all their writings. Nothing can be farther from vain oftentation and popular applaufe. No ftudied arts to dress up a cunningly devifed fable. No vain declamation after any miracle of our Saviour they relate. They record thefe aftonishing operations with the fame difpaffionate coolnefs, as if they had been common transactions, without that oftentatious rodomontade, which impoftors and enthufiafts univerfally employ. They give us a plain unadorned narration of thefe amazing feats of fupernatural powerfaying nothing previously to raise our expectation, or after their performance breaking forth into any exclamation-but leaving the reader to draw the conclufion. The writers of thefe books are diftinguished above all the authors who ever wrote accounts of perfons and things, for their fincerity and integrity. Enthufiafts and impoftors never proclaim to the world the weakness of their under

+

Quæque ipfe miferrima vidi,

Et quorum pars magna fui.

Virg. Æneid. Lib. ii. v. 5.

understanding, and the defects of their character. The Evangelifts honeftly acquaint the reader with the lowness of their station, the indigence of their circumftances, the inveteracy of their national prejudices, their dulnefs of apprehenfion, their weaknefs of faith, their ambitious views, and the warm contentions they agitated among themfelves. They even tell us how they bafely deferted their mafler, by a fhameful precipitate flight, when he was feized by his enemies—and that, after his crucifixion, they had all again returned to their former fecular employments-for ever refigning all the hopes they had once fondly cherifhed, and abandoning the cause in which they had fo long been engaged, notwithstanding all the proofs that had been exhibited, and the conviction they had before entertained that JESUS was the Meffiah, and that his religion was from God. A faithful picture this, held up to the reader, for him to contemplate the true features of the writer's mind. Such men as thefe were as far from being deceived themselves, as they were incapable of impofing a falfehood upon others. The facred regard they had for truth appears in every thing they relate. They mention, with many affecting circumftances, the obftinate unreasonable incredulity of one of their affociates-not convinced but by ocular and fenfible demonftration. They might have concealed from the world their own faults and follies-or if they had chofen to mention them, might have alledged plaufible reasons

to

to soften and extenuate them. But they related, without disguise, events and facts just as they happened, and left them to speak their own language. So that to reject a history thus circumftanced, and impeach the veracity of writers furnished with these qualifications for giving the jufteft accounts of perfonal characters and tranfactions, which they enjoyed the best opportunities for accurately obferving and knowing, is an affront offered to the reafon and understanding of mankind, a folecism against the laws of truth and history; would, with equal reason, lead men to disbelieve every thing related in Herodotus, Thucydides, Diodorus Siculus, Livy, and Tacitus, to confound all history with fable and fiction, truth with falfehood, and veracity with imposture, and not to credit any thing how well foever attefted; that there were fuch kings as the Stuarts, or fuch places as Paris and Rome, because we are not indulged with ocular conviction of them. The truth of the gofpel history rests upon the fame bafis with the truth of other antient books, and its pretenfions are to be impartially examined by the fame rules, by which we judge of the credibility of all other historical monuments. And if we compare the merit of the facred writers, as hiftorians, with that of otherwriters, we shall be convinced, that they are inferior to none who ever wrote, either with regard to knowledge of perfons, acquaintance with falls, candour of mind, and reverence for truth.

SECT.