references it is difficult to know. I do not mean, that other passages
of the Jewish history stand upon no better evidence than the history of
Job, or of Jannes and Jambres (I think much otherwise); but I mean, that
a reference in the New Testament to a passage in the Old does not so fix
its authority as to exclude all inquiry into its credibility, or into
the separate reasons upon which that credibility is founded; and that it
is an unwarrantable as well as unsafe rule to lay down concerning the
Jewish history, what was never laid down concerning any other, that
either every particular of it must be true, or the whole false.

I have thought it necessary to state this point explicitly, because a
fashion, revived by Voltaire, and pursued by the disciples of his
school, seems to have much prevailed of late, of attacking Christianity
through the sides of Judaism. Some objections of this class are founded
in misconstruction, some in exaggeration; but all proceed upon a
supposition, which has not been made out by argument, viz. that the
attestation which the Author and first teachers of Christianity gave to
the divine mission of Moses and the prophets extends to every point and
portion of the Jewish history; and so extends as to make Christianity
responsible, in its own credibility, for the circumstantial truth (I had
almost said for the critical exactness) of every narrative contained in
the Old Testament.

CHAPTER IV.

REJECTION OF CHRISTIANITY.

We acknowledge that the Christian religion, although it converted great
numbers, did not produce an universal, or even a general conviction in
the minds of men of the age and countries in which it appeared. And this
want of a more complete and extensive success is called the rejection of
the Christian history and miracles; and has been thought by some to form
a strong objection to the reality of the facts which the history
contains.

The matter of the objection divides itself into two parts; as it relates
to the Jews, and as it relates to Heathen nations: because the minds of
these two descriptions of men may have been, with respect to
Christianity, under the influence of very different causes. The case of
the Jews, inasmuch as our Saviour's ministry was originally addressed to
them, offers itself first to our consideration.

Now upon the subject of the truth of the Christian religion; with us
there is but one question, viz., whether the miracles were actually
wroug