upposed endowments are purely a supposition on
the part of Christians in general."

"Just as yours, we may say, of an indefectible wisdom on one point
is a supposition on your part. I think in that respect that you are
both well matched. But I freely confess that I think their
supposition more plausible than yours; and, if I were an advocate
for Christianity, I should certainly rather suppose with them than
suppose with you; that is, I should think it more credible, if God
interposed with such stupendous instruments as miracles, inspiration,
and prophecy at all, he would endow the men thus favored (not with
all knowledge, indeed, but) with whatever was necessary to prevent
their encountering a certainty of vitiating their testimony."

"But how would their testimony be liable to be vitiated? I am supposing
them to be absolutely free from error as regards the religious clement,
which they deliver pure."

'We shall see in a minute whether their testimony was liable to be
vitiated or not, and whether the separation for which you contend be
conceivable, or even possible. I fear that you have no winnowing-fan
which will separate the chaff from the wheat."

"To me, nothing seems more easy than the supposition I have made."

"Few things are more easy than to make suppositions; but let us see.
I am sure you will answer as fairly as I shall ask questions. To do
otherwise would be to separate the 'moral element' from the 'logical,'
whatever the New Testament writers may have done. You believe, you
say, in the resurrection of Christ?"

"I do."

"As a fact or doctrine?"

"Both as a fact and doctrine."

"For it is both, if true," said Harrington; "and so, I apprehend, it
will be found with the other doctrines of Christianity. Whether, in
your particular latitude of Rationalism, you believe many or few of
them, still, if true at all (which we at present take for granted),
they are both facts and doctrines, from the Incarnation to the
Resurrection. But to confine ourselves to one,--that of the
Resurrection,--for one will answer my purpose as well as a thousand;
--that, you say, is a fact,--a fact of history?"

"It is."

"It is, then, conveyed to us as such?"

"Certainly."

"Were the recorders of that fact liable to error in conveying it to
us? In other words, might they so blunder in conveying that fact (as
we know the unaided historian may, and often does) as to leave us
in doubt whether it ever took place or not?"