THE GOSPELS, HISTORICAL.

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on the part of their authors of their liability to detection. They who are so simple as to lay the scene of their fictions amidst public transactions, places, and persons, with so little perception of the risk of exposure, must betray the same want of good sense in the composition of their stories, and we may be perfectly certain that it will require no extraordinary degree of penetration to lay bare the delusion.

It is departing somewhat from the course which I have prescribed to myself, still I may be permitted to remark in this connexion, that the simple fact that these writings have obtained extensive credit, creates a very strong presumption of their substantial truth. That a thing is not proved because it has been long and generally believed, is a consideration of great importance which should never be lost sight of. Still the force with which it applies in any given instance, is determined by the nature of the subject proposed to us for our assent. If it be a mere matter of speculation--of opinion-a point upon which there is a peculiar liability to error, prejudice and delusion, authority can have but little weight. Yet, even in this case, we can hardly help believing that whatever a large mass of men have for ages credited, must have in it some portion-some basis of truth. The extensive and enduring prevalence of a certain conviction or faith, is a fact, an effect, for which some cause must exist, and there is no cause so universal as truth. Thus it is commonly said and admitted that the universality of a belief in a God and in a life to come, is one argument for these two great doctrines, a presumption, at least, of their truth. But this pre

sumption is a great deal stronger when the proposition demanding credit states a fact, or a number of facts, and these, too, not insulated, not of a private but of a public nature; because facts of this description must naturally and necessarily be associated and interwoven with myriads of other facts of universal notoriety, and the evidences of their truth or falsehood must be spread out in the greatest abundance in the eye of the world. If there were now just published a narration of facts of a character public and remarkable, like those recorded in the New Testament, and purporting to have taken place quite recently, within a few years, in this, or in some neighbouring community, if there were no truth in them, they could not gain credit for a single moment, for their falsehood would manifest itself at once to every man, so that he who runs might read, in the entire absence of all that near and collateral evidence, which every real event carries with it in the multiplicity of its public bearings and connexions, and which does not require to be searched after, as it is impossible to be overlooked. The times, places, customs, institutions, feelings and opinions alluded to more or less distinctly, presenting none of the traces or impressions which the facts reported must have left, would by their silence immediately reveal the fraud. On the other hand, if it were pretended that the incidents now first published, had occurred a great while ago, the simple fact, that in the present state of things no signs were visible of the impression which they must have originally made, would be decisive with every man, and they never could command general credit.

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Therefore, I say, the contents of the four Gospels being such as they are, events public and extraordinary, it is difficult to conceive how these books could ever have come to be extensively believed, if, when they were first published, whether soon or late after the things related took place, they had not been accompanied and corroborated by that strong, indispensable, though unestimated and unrecorded testimony which every public event brings with it through its connexions and relations with other matters of undisputed notoriety. I am not maintaining as a general remark that a thing is proved to be true because it is believed. This only do I say, that it is hardly possible to imagine how the four Gospels could ever have obtained credit if they were not substantially true, because they are not accounts of abstract opinions, they are narrations, not of private visions and secret experiences, but of public occurrences closely affiliated with the public affairs, persons and institutions of a certain period and a certain community. Their character being thus eminently circumstantial, the fact that they have been credited, is no faint presumption that they are true—that when they were first published, they brought with them that collateral corroboration which is exceedingly powerful, although it is seldom or never defined and estimated.

However, this is a digression from our proposed course of remark. My present design is, without reference to the authority or faith of others, to exhibit as far as is possible the truth of the Christian records, that quality in them which appeals to a deeper faculty than the understanding, from internal indications

alone. With this view, we have now cast one hasty glance over these books, and the first thing that has arrested our notice, and furnished food for thought, is the obviously historical and public nature of their contents. From this trait we have inferred that they are either substantially true, or the most reckless fabrications ever published to the world. If the latter, then there is an entire want of art in their composition. No one actuated by a design to deceive, would have strung together so many details, since he would be thereby virtually collecting an untold weight of testimony to disprove the truth of his relations. I have not entertained the supposition that the authors of these books may have been self-deluded. In some particulars they may have been deceived. Whether they were or were not, remains to be seen upon a closer examination of these writings. We have looked now only at the circumstantial and public nature of the things they contain. So far as this is their character, they are inconsistent with delusion. Looking at the facts as they are given, having occurred as it is professed in the open air, at noon-day, in public places and amidst crowds, we hold that these accounts must be true in the main, or else such a want of art is evinced in their fabrication, as will show itself in their whole structure, and render it no difficult thing to settle fully their real character and claims.

CHAPTER III.

THE MARKS OF HONESTY APPARENT IN THE GOSPELS.

"So stands it, in short, with all forms of intellect, whether as directed to the finding of truth or to the fit imparting thereof; always the characteristic of right performance is a certain spontaneity, an unconsciousness."-Edinburgh Review.

I COME now to the consideration of another and more decisive characteristic of these writings. It is the same trait upon which we have already remarked, but more strikingly manifested, showing itself in other ways; it may be designated as Unconsciousness or Simplicity. This feature reveals itself by luminous tokens. It appears in the most impressive manner that the authors of these books were wholly unconscious of any design to make out a case-to do anything but state facts.

In the eleventh chapter of the fourth book, entitled the Gospel according to John, we have a minute account of a most extraordinary event, the raising of a dead man, Lazarus, to life. It is represented as having taken place in a public manner. The stone which covered the mouth of the tomb is removed. Jesus calls aloud to the dead man to come forth. And he comes forth in the presence of a number of persons.

Now what does the narrative immediately proceed to inform us of? Why, that although some of the spectators were impressed and led to admit the ex