METHOD OF THE WORK.

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markable extent, precisely of the kind which furnish the most copious and satisfactory manifestations of the spirit and aim of their authors. Indeed, I venture to assert, that if we had authentic and minute biographies of the writers of the four Gospels, we should still have the most decisive illustrations of their characters, in the style and structure of the Gospels themselves. We should still see in these their works, the strongest evidence that they were eye and ear-witnesses of the things they record -men of good sense and sound hearts, possessing excellent powers and opportunities of observation, and inspired, to an uncommon degree, by that single-mindedness upon which we always delight to repose our most cordial confidence.

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CHAPTER II.

THE HISTORICAL CHARACTER OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.

"The Scripture is no one summary of doctrines regularly digested, in which a man could not mistake his way; it is a most venerable, but most multifarious collection of the records of the divine economy, a collection of an infinite variety of Cosmogony, Theology, History, Prophecy, Psalmody, Morality, Apologue, Allegory, Legislation, Ethics, carried through different books, by different authors, at different ages, for different ends and purposes.

"It is necessary to sort out what is intended for example, what only as narrative. *

BURKE-Speech on the Acts of Uniformity.

In looking over the four Gospels, the first and most obvious feature that strikes us is their Historical character.

They have been so long and so widely treated, as if they were creeds or formulas of faith, made up of formal propositions, each by itself affirming an independent and unqualified article of belief, that we are apt to overlook altogether this remarkable trait, their historical nature. They are not argumentative, nor didactic. They belong to the department of History, Biography, Memoirs. They may be complete or imperfect, true or the grossest fabri

THE GOSPELS, HISTORICAL.

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cations, still they are not philosophical treatises, elaborate statements of principles more or less important. They are evidently histories, narratives. They are crowded with incidents. They abound in notices, direct and indirect, of persons, places, and events. They scarcely contain what with any propriety can be called an abstract discourse. The circumstances mentioned, too, are for the most part remarkable for their publicity, and even those portions that approach nearest to the character of sermons are not general in their style of thought, but are expressed in a popular phraseology, and are filled with local and personal allusions. The scene is not laid in a dark, retired corner, but the course of events is represented as going on over a vast extent of country, in the presence of particular individuals and large multitudes. Cities and villages with their respective localities are incidentally designated, wherein the facts narrated took place. To speak still more dramatically, the curtain rises, and the first glance shows us Jerusalem and its magnificent temple, Judea, the River Jordan, the Sea of Galilee, and the region round about; and we stand in the open air, and under the noonday sun, to observe the progress of the events related. Multitudes are collected before us. Different individuals and whole classes of men pass over the stage, Pharisees and Sadducees, teachers of the Jewish Law, Roman soldiers, taxgatherers, centurions, and magistrates, and all has the air of the greatest publicity.

Now what is the natural inference from this obvious

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THE GOSPELS, HISTORICAL.

feature of these writings? If a book of a similar character were published at the present day, a book not occupied with speculative discussions, not stating principles or opinions, but relating facts, purporting to have occurred in some well known country and within the last fifty or sixty years, filled with circumstantial details, abounding in allusions, local, personal, civil, introducing the names of public functionaries and offices-of parties, religious and political, how would such a publication be regarded? It would either be understood at once and by all as a mere work of imagination, so considered by the author himself, and published as a fiction, not to be credited as true, but to exercise and illustrate his own genius, and to procure for him the fame of genius; or, if we supposed that he intended and expected to be believed, then it must be because of its substantial truth, or else he must be among the most absurd of men. Every man who has intelligence enough to fabricate a story with a view to impose upon the world, takes especial care how he meddles with facts, circumstances, names; "All things animate and inanimate are combined against falsehood." In the great system of Nature and Providence, nothing exists alone and insulated. Every circumstance and every object, however trifling apparently, are inextricably related in innumerable ways to innumerable other circumstances and objects, so that every fact virtually appeals to an incalculable mass of testimony. He who lays the scene of his story in a certain country, in the presence of multitudes, in the midst of public affairs and institutions, summons he knows not

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how many witnesses to testify to the truth of what he affirms. Every circumstance that he introduces swells the cloud of witnesses beyond all enumeration. If he relates what has no foundation in reality, he exposes himself to detection at unnumbered points, and it is impossible that he should not be instantaneously overwhelmed with the shame and ridicule which he so urgently invites. He is only spreading snares for his own feet, weaving a web in which he is sure to be caught and entangled.

It is fairly to be presumed therefore that the authors of the books under consideration never intended to state what was false. If they had designed to deceive-to relate what they knew was not true, they never would have been so prodigal of circumstances, so profuse in allusions to public persons, places, and events. Some cautionsome apprehension of their liability to exposure would have shown itself in the manner in which they touch upon details. But we find nothing of this kind. These writings are pervadingly narrative-full of incidents. There is no trace of caution or constraint. Whether true or false then, we cannot but conclude that they were written in good faith-that their author or authors believed them to be true. And if so, the presumption is equally strong that they are true in the main. Because although the most honest of men are liable to be deluded, yet it is wholly without example and utterly incredible that such a multitude of particulars as are recorded in these books, should be mere delusions. They may be more or less misapprehended, but they must be substantially founded