the credibility of the narratives of the Gospel, and
that of any common history?"

"I must honestly confess, then, that I do not, if the discrepancies,
as Strauss alleges, and not something else, is to be assigned as the
cause of their rejection. If indeed, like some criminals under despotic
governments, they are apprehended and convicted on a certain charge,
but really hanged for an entirely different reason, I can understand
that there may be policy in the proceeding; but I do not comprehend
its argumentative honesty. Be pleased, therefore, (that I may form
some conclusion,) to tell me what are those circumstances which so
wonderfully discriminate the discrepancies in the New Testament
histories from those in other histories, as that the inevitable
consequence of finding a certain amount of discrepancies in the former
leads to the rejection of the entire, or nearly entire, documents
in which they are found, while their presence in other histories even
to a far greater extent shall not authorize their rejection at all,
or the rejection only of the parts in which the discrepancies are found.
And yet I think I can guess."

"Well, what do you guess?"

"That you think that the miraculous nature of the events which form
a portion of the New Testament history makes a great difference in
the case."

"And do not you?"

"I cannot say I do: for though it is doubtless Strauss's principal
object to get rid of these miracles, it is not as miracles, but as
history, that his canons of historic criticism are applied to them.
It is as history that he attacks the books in which they are
contained. His weapons are directed against the miracles, indeed;
but it is only by piercing the history, with which alone the supposed
discrepancies had ally thing to do."

"But I cannot conceive that the historic discrepancies occurring in
connection with such topics must not have more weight attached to
them than if they occurred in any other history."

"This is because you have already resolved that miracles are
impossible on totally different grounds. But you may see the fallacy
in a moment. Talk with a man who does not believe miracles a priori
impossible, and that, though of course improbable (otherwise they
would be none, I suppose), the authentication of a divine revelation
is a sufficient reason for their being wrought, and he evades your
argument. You are then compelled, you see, to throw yourself exclusively
upon the alleged histori