authors.
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The situation of the writers applies to the truth of the facts which
they record. But at present we use their testimony to a point somewhat
short of this, namely, that the facts recorded in the Gospels, whether
true or false, are the facts, and the sort of facts which the original
preachers of the religion allege. Strictly speaking, I am concerned only
to show, that what the Gospels contain is the same as what the apostles
preached. Now, how stands the proof of this point? A set of men went
about the world, publishing a story composed of miraculous accounts,
(for miraculous from the very nature and exigency of the case they must
have been,) and upon the strength of these accounts called upon mankind
to quit the religions in which they had been educated, and to take up,
thenceforth, a new system of opinions, and new rules of action. What is
more in attestation of these accounts, that is, in support of an
institution of which these accounts were the foundation, is, that the
same men voluntarily exposed themselves to harassing and perpetual
labours, dangers, and sufferings. We want to know what these accounts
were. We have the particulars, i. e. many particulars, from two of their
own number. We have them from an attendant of one of the number, and
who, there is reason to believe, was an inhabitant of Jerusalem at the
time. We have them from a fourth writer, who accompanied the most
laborious missionary of the institution in his travels; who, in the
course of these travels, was frequently brought into the society of the
rest; and who, let it be observed, begins his narrative by telling us
that he is about to relate the things which had been delivered by those
who were ministers of the word, and eye-witnesses of the facts. I do not
know what information can be more satisfactory than this. We may,
perhaps, perceive the force and value of it more sensibly if we reflect
how requiring we should have been if we had wanted it. Supposing it to
be sufficiently proved, that the religion now professed among us owed
its original to the preaching and ministry of a number of men, who,
about eighteen centuries ago, set forth in the world a new system of
religious opinions, founded upon certain extraordinary things which they
related of a wonderful person who had appeared in Judea; suppose it to
be also sufficiently proved, that, in the course and prosecution of
their ministry, these men had subjected themselves to e