CONTENTS. Page OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRIS- TIANITY, AND WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED That there is satisfactory evidence, that many, profess- ing to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief of those accounts; and that they also CHAP. I. Evidence of the sufferings of the first pro- CHAP. II. Evidence of the sufferings of the first pro- pagators of Christianity, from Profane testimony 17 CHAP. III.-Indirect evidence of the sufferings of the first propagators of Christianity, from the Scrip- tures and other ancient Christian writings CHAP. IV. Direct evidence of the same. CHAP. V.-Observations upon the preceding evidence 40 CHAP. VI. That the story, for which the first pro- pagators of Christianity suffered, was miraculous, 44 CHAP. VII. That it was, in the main, the story which we have now, proved by indirect considerations CHAP. IX. Of the authenticity of the historical SECT. II. Of the peculiar respect with which they SECT. III.-The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a distinct volume. SECT. IV. And distinguished by appropriate names. SECT. V.-Were publicly read and expounded in the religious assemblies of the early Christians SECT. VII. They were received by ancient Chris- tians of different sects and persuasions SECT. VIII. The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint Paul, the First Epistle of John, and the First of Peter, were received without doubt by those who doubted concerning the SECT. IX. Our present Gospels were considered by the adversaries of Christianity, as containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded SECT. X.-Formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures SECT. XI. The above propositions cannot be pre- dicated of those books which are commonly called That there is NOT satisfactory evidence, that persons pretending to be original witnesses of any other similar miracles, have acted in the `same manner, in attestation of the accounts which they CHAP. IV. Identity of Christ's character. CHAP. V.-Originality of Christ's character CHAP. VI.-Conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture, with the state of things in those times, as represented by foreign CHAP. VII.-Undesigned Coincidences CHAP. VIII.-Of the History of the Resurrection 245 CHAP. IX. Of the Propagation of Christianity 249 HONOURABLE AND RIGHT REVEREND JAMES YORK, D.D. MY LORD, LORD BISHOP OF ELY. WHEN, five years ago, an important station in the University of Cambridge awaited your Lordship's disposal, you were pleased to offer it to me. The circumstances under which this offer was made, demand a public acknowledgment. I had never seen your Lordship; I possessed no connexion which could possibly recommend me to your favour; I was known to you, only by my endeavours, in common with many others, to discharge my duty as a tutor in the University; and by some very imperfect, but certainly well-intended, and, as you thought, useful publications since. In an age by no means wanting in examples of honourable patronage, although this deserve not to be mentioned in respect of the object of your Lordship's choice, it is inferior to none in the purity and disinterestedness of the motives which suggested it. How the following work may be received, I pretend not to foretel. My first prayer concerning it is, that it may do good to any; my second hope, that it may assist, what it hath always been my earnest wish to promote, the religious part of an academical education. If in this latter view it might seem, in any degree, to excuse your Lordship's judgment of its author, I shall be gratified by the reflection, that, to a kindness flowing from public principles, I have made the best public return in my power, In the mean time, and in every event, I rejoice in the opportunity here afforded me, of testifying the sense I entertain of your Lordship's conduct, and of a notice which I regard as the most flattering distinction of my I am, MY LORD, life. With sentiments of gratitude and respect, Your Lordship's faithful And most obliged servant, EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY. PREPARATORY CONSIDERATIONS. I DEEM it unnecessary to prove, that mankind stood in need of a revelation, because I have met with no serious person who thinks that, even under the Christian revelation, we have too much light, or any degree of assurance, which is superfluous. I desire, moreover, that in judging of Christianity, it may be remembered, that the question lies between this religion and none: for if the Christian religion be not credible, no one, with whom we have to do, will support the pretensions of any other. Suppose, then, the world we live in to have had a Creator; suppose it to appear, from the predominant aim and tendency of the provisions and contrivances observable in the universe, that the Deity, when he formed it, consulted for the happiness of his sensitive creation; suppose the disposition which dictated this counsel to continue; suppose a part of the creation to have received faculties from their Maker, by which they are capable of rendering a moral obedience to his will, and of yoluntarily pursuing any end for which he has designed them; suppose the Creator to intend for these, his rational and accountable agents, a second state of existence, in which their situation will be regulated by their behaviour in the first state, by which supposition (and by no other) the objection to the divine government in not putting a difference between the good and the bad, and the inconsistency of this confusion with the care and benevolence discoverable in the works of the Deity, is done away; suppose it to be of the utmost importance to the subjects of this dispensation to know what is intended for them; that is, suppose the knowledge of it to be highly conducive to the happiness of the species, a purpose which so many provisions of nature are calculated to promote; suppose, nevertheless, almost the whole race, either by the imperfection of their faculties, the misfortune of their situation, or by the loss |