entire and unsuspicious as before. Posterity | where a great deal of circumstance is introis in these cases disposed to make the most duced, it proves, that the narrator feels the liberal allowances. Instead of calling it a confidence of truth, and labours under no contradiction, they often call it a difficulty. apprehension for the fate of his narrative. They are sensible, that in many instances, Even though we have it not in our power a seeming variety of statement has, upon a to verify the truth of a single circumstance, more extensive knowledge of ancient his- yet the mere property of a story being circumtory, admitted of a perfect reconciliation. stantial is always felt to carry an evidence Instead, then, of referring the difficulty in in its favour. It imparts a more familiar question to the inaccuracy or bad faith of any air of life and reality to the narrative. It is of the parties, they with more justness and easy to believe, that the groundwork of a more modesty, refer it their own igno-story may be a fabrication; but it requires rance, and to that obscurity which necessa- a more refined species of imposture than rily hangs over the history of every remote we can well conceive, to construct a harmoage. These principles are suffered to have nious and well-sustained narrative, aboundgreat influence in every secular investiga- ing in minute and circumstantial details tion; but so soon as, instead of a secular, it | which support one another, and where, becomes a sacred investigation, every ordi- with all our experience of real life, we can nary principle is abandoned, and the sus- detect nothing misplaced, or inconsistent, picion annexed to the teachers of religion is or improbable. carried to the dereliction of all that candour and liberality, with which every other document of antiquity is judged of and ap-reader with a complete analysis or examinapreciated. How does it happen, that the tion of the Gospel history. But the most authority of Josephus should be acquiesced superficial observer cannot fail to perceive, in as a first principle, while every step in that it maintains, in a very high degree, the the narrative of the evangelists must have character of being a circumstantial narraforeign testimony to confirm and supporttive. When a miracle is recorded, we have it? How comes it that the silence of Jose- generally the name of the town or neighphus should be construed into an impeach-bourhood where it happened; the names of ment of the testimony of the evangelists, the people concerned; the effect upon the while it is never admitted for a single mo- hearts and convictions of the by-standers; ment, that the silence of the evangelists can the arguments and examinations it gave impart the slightest blemish to the testimony birth to; and all that minuteness of referof Josephus? How comes it that the sup-ence and description which impresses a position of two Philips in one family should strong character of reality upon the whole throw a damp of scepticism over the Gos- history. If we take along with us the time pel narrative, while the only circumstance at which this history made its appearance, which renders that supposition necessary is the argument becomes much stronger.the single testimony of Josephus; in which It does not merely carry a presumption very testimony, it is necessarily implied, in its favour, from being a circumstantial that there are two Herods in the same fam- history:-it carries a proof in its favour, beily? How comes it, that the evangelists, cause these circumstances were completely with as much internal, and a vast deal within the reach and examination of those more of external evidence in their favour, to whom it was addressed. Had the evanshould be made to stand before Josephus, gelists been false historians, they would not like so many prisoners at the bar of justice? have committed themselves upon so many In any other case, we are convinced that particulars. They would not have furnished this would be looked upon as rough hand- the vigilant inquiries of that period with ling. But we are not sorry for it. It has such an effectual instrument for bringing given more triumph and confidence to the them into discredit with the people; nor argument. And it is no small addition to foolishly supplied, in every page of their our faith, that its first teachers have sur- narrative, so many materials for a crossvived an examination, which, in point of examination, which would infallibly have rigour and severity, we believe to be quite disgraced them. unexampled in the annals of criticism.

It is always looked upon as a favourable presumption, when a story is told circumstantially. The art and the safety of an impostor, is to confine his narrative to generals, and not to commit himself by too minute a specification of time and place, and allusion to the manners or occurrences of the day. The more of circumstance that we introduce into a story, we multiply the chances of detection, if false; and therefore,

To prosecute this argument in all its extent, it would be necessary to present the

Now, we of this age can institute the same cross-examination. We can compare the evangelical writers with contemporary authors, and verify a number of circumstances in the history, and government, and peculiar economy of the Jewish people. We therefore have it in our power to institute a cross-examination upon the writers of the New Testament; and the freedom and frequency of their allusions to these circumstances supply us with ample materials

for it. The fact, that they are borne out in | to believe, that truth should have been so artfully blended with falsehood in the composition of this narrative, particularly as we perceive nothing like a forced introduction of any one circumstance. There appears to be nothing out of place, nothing thrust in with the view of imparting an air of probability to the history. The circumstance upon which we bring the evangelists into comparison with profane authors, is often not intimated in a direct form, but in the form of a slight or distant allusion. There is not the most remote appearance of its being fetched or sought for. It is brought in accidentally, and flows in the most natural and undesigned manner out of the progress of the narrative.

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their minute and incidental allusions by the testimony of other historians, gives a strong weight of what has been called circumstantial evidence in their favour. As a specimen of the argument, let us confine our observations to the history of our Saviour's trial, and execution, and burial. They brought him to Pontius Pilate. We know both from Tacitus and Josephus, that he was at that time governor of Judea. sentence from him was necessary before they could proceed to the execution of Jesus; and we know that the power of life and death was usually vested in the Roman governor. Our Saviour was treated with derision; and this we know to have been a customary practice at that time, previous to the execution of criminals, and during the time of it. Pilate scourged Jesus before he gave him up to be crucified. We know from ancient authors, that this was a very usual practice among the Romans. The account of an excution generally run in this form:he was stripped, whipped, and beheaded or executed. According to the evangelists, his accusation was written on the top of the cross; and we learn from Suetonius and others, that the crime of a person to be executed was affixed to the instrument of his punishment. According to the evangelist, this accusation was written in three different languages; and we know from Josephus, that it was quite common in Jerusalem to have all public advertisements written in this manner. According to the evangelists, Jesus had to bear his cross; and we know from other resources of information, that this was the constant practice of these times. According to the evangelists, the body of Jesus was given up to be buried at the request of friends. We know that, unless the criminal was infamous, this was the law, or the custom with all Roman governors.

These, and a few more particulars of the same kind, occur within the compass of a single page of the evangelical history. The circumstantial manner of the history affords a presumption in its favour, antecedent to all examination into the truth of the circumstances themselves. But it makes a strong addition to the evidence, when we find, that in all the subordinate parts of the main story, the evangelists maintain so great a consistency with the testimony of other authors, and with all we can collect from other sources of information, as to the manners and institutions of that period. It is difficult to conceive, in the first instance, how the inventor of a fabricated story would hazard such a number of circumstances, each of them supplying a point of comparison with other authors, and giving to the inquirer an additional chance of detecting the imposition. And it is still more difficult

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The circumstance, that none of the Gospel writers are inconsistent with one another, falls better under a different branch of the argument. It is enough for our present purpose, that there is no single writer inconsistent with himself. It often happens, that falsehood carries its own refutation along with it; and that, through the artful disguises which are employed in the construction of a fabricated story, we can often detect a flaw or a contradiction, which condemns the authority of the whole narrative. Now, every single piece of the New Testament wants this mark or character of falsehood. The different parts are found to sustain, and harmonize, and flow out of each other. Each has at least the merit of being a consistent narrative. For any thing we see upon the face of it, it may be true, and a further hearing must be given before we can be justified in rejecting it as the tale of an impostor.

There is another mark of falsehood which each of the Gospel narratives appear to be exempted from. There is little or no parading about their own integrity. We can collect their pretensions to credit from the history itself, but we see no anxious display of these pretensions. We cannot fail to perceive the force of that argument which is derived from the publicity of the Christian miracles, and the very minute and scrupulous examination which they had to sustain from the rulers and official men of Judea. But this publicity, and these examinations, are simply recorded by the evangelists. There is no boastful reference to these circumstances, and no ostentatious display of the advantage which they give to the Christian argument. They bring their story forward in the shape of a direct and unencumbered narrative, and deliver themselves with that simplicity and unembarrassed confidence, which nothing but their consciousness of truth, and the perfect feeling of their own strength and consistency, can account for. They do not write, as if their object was to carry a point that was at all doubtful or suspicious. It is simply to transmit to the men of other times,

CHAPTER IV.

On the Testimony of the Original Witnesses to the Truth of the Gospel Narrative.

III. THERE was nothing in the situation | parted from, and no object of veneration of the New Testament writers, which leads abandoned. It did not involve in it the deus to perceive that they had any possible in- nial or relinquishment of our own gods, but ducement for publishing a falsehood. only the addition of so many more gods to our catalogue.

In this respect, however, the Jews stood

We have not to allege the mere testimony of the Christian writers, for the danger to which the profession of Christianity ex-distinguished from every other people withposed all its adherents at that period. We in the limits of the Roman empire. Their have the testimony of Tacitus to this effect. religious belief carried in it something more We have innumerable allusions, or express than attachment to their own system. It intimations, of the same circumstance in the carried in it the contempt and detestation Roman historians. The treatment and per- of every other. Yet, in spite of this circumsecution of the Christians make a principle stance, their religion was protected by the figure in the affairs of the empire; and there mild and equitable toleration of the Roman is no point better established in ancient his- government. The truth is, that there was tory, than that the bare circumstance of nothing in the habits or character of the being a Christian, brought many to the Jews, which was calculated to give much punishment of death, and exposed all to disturbance to the establishments of other the danger of a suffering the most appalling countries. Though they admitted converts and repulsive to the feelings of our nature. from other nations, yet their spirit of proselytism was far from being of that active or adventurous kind, which could alarm the Roman government for the safety of any existing institutions. Their high and exclusive veneration for their own system gave an unsocial disdain to the Jewish

It is not difficult to perceive, why the Roman government, in its treatment of Christians, departed from its usual principles of toleration. We know it to have been their uniform practice, to allow every indulgence to the religious belief of those different countries in which they estab-character, which was not at all inviting to lished themselves. The truth is, that such foreigners; but still, as it led to nothing an indulgence demanded of them no ex- mischievous in point of effect, it seems to ertion of moderation or principle. It was have been overlooked by the Roman governquite consonant with the Spirit of Pagan- ment as a piece of impotent vanity. ism. A different country worshipped different gods, but it was a general principle of Paganism, that each country had its gods, to which the inhabitants of that country owed their peculiar homage and veneration. In this way there was no interference between the different religions which prevailed in the world. It fell in with the policy of the Roman government to allow the fullest toleration to other religions, and it demanded no sacrifice of principle. It was even a dictate of principle with them to respect the gods of other countries; and the violation of a religion different from their own, seems to have been felt, not merely as a departure from policy or justice, but to be viewed with the same sentiment of horror which is annexed to blasphemy or sacrilege. So long as we were under Paganism, the truth of one religion did not involve in it the falsehood or rejection of another. In respecting the religion of another country, we did not abandon our own; nor did it follow, that the inhabitants of that other country annexed any contempt or discredit to the religion in which we had been educated. In this mutual reverence for the religion of each other, no principle was de

But the case was widely different with the Christian system. It did not confine itself to the denial or rejection of every other system. It was for imposing its own exclusive authority over the consciences of all, and for detaching as many as it could from their allegiance to the religion of their own country. It carried on its forehead all the offensive characters of a monopoly, and not merely excited resentment by the supposed arrogance of its pretensions, but from the rapidity and extent of its innovations, spread an alarm over the whole Roman empire for the security of al its establishments. Accordingly, at the com mencement of its progress, so long as it was confined to Judea and the immediate neighbourhood, it seems to have been in perfect safety from the persecution of the Roman government. It was at first looked upon as a mere modification of Judaism, and that the first Christians differed from the rest of their countrymen only in certain questions of their own superstition. For a few years after the crucifixion of our Saviour, it seems to have excited no alarm on the part of the Roman emperors, who did not depart from their usual maxims of toleration, till they

began to understand the magnitude of its | luntary martyrdom in the cause of their pretensions, and the unlooked for success religion? which attended them.

In the course of a very few years after its first promulgation, it drew upon it the hostility of the Roman government; and the fact is undoubted, that some of its first teachers, who announced themselves to be the companions of our Saviour, and the eye-witnesses of the remarkable events in his history, suffered martyrdom for their adherence to the religion which they taught.

Having premised these observations, we offer the following alternative to the mind of every candid inquirer. The first Christians either delivered a sincere testimony, or they imposed a story upon the world which they knew to be a fabrication.

The persecutions to which the first Christians voluntarily exposed themselves, compel us to adopt the first part of the alternative. It is not to be conceived, that a man I would resign fortune, and character, and life, in the assertion of what he knew to be a falsehood. The first Christians must have believed their story to be true; and it only remains to prove, that if they believed it to be true, it must be true indeed.

The disposition of the Jews to the religion of Jesus was no less hostile; and it manifested itself at a still earlier stage of the business. The causes of this hostility are obvious to all who are in the slightest degree conversant with the history of those A voluntary martyrdom must be looked times. It is true, that the Jews did not at upon as the highest possible evidence which all times possess the power of life and death; it is in the power of man to give of his sinnor was it competent for them to bring the cerity. The martyrdom of Socrates has Christians to execution by the exercise of never been questioned, as an undeniable legal authority. Still, however, their powers proof of the sincere devotion of his mind of mischief were considerable. Their wishes to the principles of that philosophy for had always a certain controul over the mea- which he suffered. The death of Archsures of the Roman governor; and we know, bishop Cranmer will be allowed by all to that it was this controul which was the be a decisive evidence of his sincere remeans of extorting from Pilate the unrigh- jection of what he conceived to be the erteous sentence by which the very first rors of Popery, and his thorough conviction teacher of our religion was brought to a in the truth of the opposite system. When cruel and ignominious death. We also the council of Geneva burnt Servetus, no know, that under Herod Agrippa the power one will question the sincerity of the latter's of life and death was vested in a Jewish belief, however much he may question the sovereign, and that this power was actu-truth of it. Now, in all these cases, the ally exerted against the most distinguished proof goes no farther than to establish the Christians of that time. Add to this, that sincerity of the martyr's belief. It goes but the Jews had, at all times, the power of in- a little way, indeed, in establishing the justflicting the lesser punishments. They could ness of it. This is a different question. A whip, they could imprison. Besides all this, man may be mistaken, though he be sinthe Christians had to brave the frenzy of an cere. His errors, if they are not seen to be enraged multitude; and some of them actu- such, will exercise all the influence and aually suffered martyrdom in the violence of thority of truth over him. Martyrs have the popular commotions. bled on the opposite sides of the question. It is impossible, then, to rest on this circumstance as an argument for the truth of either system; but the argument is always deemed incontrovertible, in as far as it goes to establish the sincerity of each of the parties, and that both died in the firm convic

Nothing is more evident than the utter disgrace which was annexed by the world at large to the profession of Christianity at that period. Tacitus calls it "superstitio exitiabilis," and accuses the Christians of enmity to mankind. By Epictetus and others, their heroism is termed obstinacy,tion of the doctrines which they professed. and it was generally treated by the Roman governors as the infatuation of a miserable and despised people. There was none of that glory annexed to it which blazes around the martyrdom of a patriot or a philosopher. That constancy, which, in another case, would have made them, illus-dom, the sufferer, when he lays down his trious, was held to be a contemptible folly, life, gives his testimony to the truth of an which only exposed them to the derision opinion. In the case of the Christians, when and insolence of the multitude. A name they laid down their lives, they gave their and a reputation in the world might sustain testimony to the truth of a fact of which the dying moments of Socrates or Regulus; they affirmed themselves to be the eye and but what earthly principles can account for the ear witnesses. The sincerity of both the intrepidity of those poor and miserable testimonies is unquestionable; but it is only outcasts, who consigned themselves to a vo- in the latter case that the truth of the testi

Now, the martyrdom of the first Christians stands distinguished from all other examples by this circumstance, that it not merely proves the sincerity of the martyr's belief, but it also proves that what he believed was true. In other cases of martyr