APPENDIX.

INTERNAL MARKS OF TRUTH AND AUTHENTICITY IN THE SCRIPTURES.

I. THAT air of simplicity and undesignedness which runs through the Gospels, especially of Matthew and Mark, not natural to a fabulist or impostor, nor easily imitated. You have in the Gospels a plain story without ornament or embellishment; without any observations of their own, either on one side or the other; without a single encomium upon Christ or his Apostles, from beginning to end; without any direct defence or recommendation, any excuse or apology, for him whatever. They relate the fact straight forward, without any attempt to procure credit to it, or any concern whether it would tell for or against them; that is, they write as men convinced themselves, and who suppose nothing more necessary to convince others than the bare narration of the fact.

II. Add to this the extreme naturalness of some of the things they mention; as, for instance, Mark ix. 24. Of the same nature is the eagerness of the people to introduce Christ into Jerusalem, Matt. xxi. 8, 9. and their rage against him when he did not turn out what they expected, Matt. xxvii. 17-26. The Rulers and Pharisees generally rejecting Christ, whilst many of the common people received him, and their reflection upon it, John vii. 48. The women in particular following Paul, Acts xvi. 13. xvii. 12. The winds and the waves subsiding together, Matt. viii. 26. The blind man, upon being restored to sight, seeing men

1

as trees walking, Mark viii. 24. The behaviour of the blind man, John ix. The conduct of Gallio, Acts xviii. 12-17. Of Festus, xxv. 18, 19. Paul's violence and zeal, first against, then for Christianity. The woman of Samaria crying out to her fellow-citizens, come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did," John iv. 29. The lawyer's quibble, "who is my neighbour?" Luke 'x. 29. The twelve baskets, i. e. of the twelve Apostles *. III. The discourses of Christ alluding always to particular incidents, the most unlikely way in the world for a forger or fabulist to attempt, and the most difficult to keep up, if he had to supply all the materials, both the incidents and observations upon them, out of his own head. They would have made for him discourses exhorting to virtue and dissuading from vice in general terms: it would never have entered their thoughts to have crowded together such a number of objections to time, place, and other little circumstances as as occur, for instance, in the sermon on the mount, and which nothing but the actual presence of the objects could suggest.

Todt vairogLIFE AND CHARACTER OF CHRIST 219 4 -e:fedi ai abolitzcl en armat of catqucres bas -Tot In the first place, Christ was absolutely innocent: we do not find a single vice to which he was addicted, either from the accounts of his own followers, or as charged upon him by his enemies we hear nothing like what is told of Mahomet, of his wives and concubines; nothing of his falling, like Socrates and Plato, into the fashionable vices of his country. In the next place, his, whole life, that part Pankrates of it at least which we are acquainted with, was employed STOSO AN in doing good, in substantial acts of kindness and compassion to all those who fell in his way, i. e. in solid virtue. TWO 16 Julin

means

of

་

In his youth he set an example of subjection and obedience to his parents, Luke ii. 51. By his presence of mind and judicious replies, whenever ensnaring questions were proposed to him, he testified the coolness and soundness of his understanding, Matt. xxi. 24, xxii. 16. xxx. 37. By avoiding all danger when he could do it consistently with his duty, and resolutely encountering the greatest, when his hour was come, i. e. when his own office or the destination of Providence made it necessary, he proved the sedateness of his courage in opposition to that which is produced by passion and enthusiasm, Matt. xii. 14, 15. xiv. 12, 13. John iv. 1-3. Compared with Matt. xv. 17-19.-by his patience and forbearance, when he had the revenge in his in his power, he taught us the proper treatment of our enemies, Luke ix. 54. Matt. xxvi. 53. compared with Luke xxiii. 34. -by his withdrawing himself from the populace and repelling their attempts to make him a king, he showed us the sense we ought to entertain of popular clamour and applause, John vi, 15.-by his laying hold of every opportunity to instruct his followers, and taking so much pains to inculcate his precepts, he left us a pattern of industry and zeal in our profession;-by the liberty he took with the Pharisees and Sadducees, the Lawyers and Scribes, in exposing their hypocrisy, their errors and corruptions, he taught us fortitude in the discharge of our duty, Matt. xxii. Luke xi. 54. he spared neither the faults of his friends, nor the vices of his enemies; by his indifference and unconcern about his own accommodation and appearance, the interests of his family and fortune, he condemned all worldly-mindedness, Matt. viii: 20. xii. 46-50. John iv. 34. He was perfectly sober and rational in his devotions, as witness the Lord's Prayer compared with any of the compositions of modern enthusiasts! His admirable discourses before his death are specimens of inimitable tenderness and affection towards his followers, John xiv. xv. xvi. xvii. His quiet submission to death, though even the prospect of it was terrible to

1

him, exhibits a complete pattern of resignation and acquiescence in the divine will, John xxii. 41-44.

And to crown all, his example was practicable, and suited to the condition of human life. He did not like Rousseau call upon mankind to return back into a state of nature, or calculate his precepts for such a state. He did not with the monk and the hermit run into caves and cloisters, or suppose men could make themselves more acceptable to God by keeping out of the way of one another. He did not, with some of the most eminent of the Stoics, command his followers to throw their wealth into the sea, nor with the eastern Faquirs, to inflict upon themselves any tedious gloomy penances, or extravagant mortifications. He did not, what is the sure companion of enthusiasm, affect singularity in his behaviour; he dressed, he ate, he conversed like other people; he accepted their invitations, was a guest at their feasts, frequented their synagogues, and went up to Jerusalem at their great festival. He supposed his disciples to follow some professions, to be soldiers, tax-gatherers, fishermen; to marry wives, pay taxes, submit to magistrates, to carry on their usual business; and when they could be spared from his service, to return again to their respective callings*. Upon the whole, if the account which is given of Christ in Scripture be a just one,-if there was really such a person, how could he be an impostor?-if there was no such person, how came the illiterate Evangelists to hit off such a character, and that without any visible design of drawing any character at all?

The like did his forerunner, John the Baptist. When the publicans and soldiers, people of the two most obnoxious professions in that age and country, asked John what they were to do, John does not require them to quit their occupations, but to beware of the vices, and perform the duties of them; which also is to be understood as the Baptist's own explanation of that μετάνοια εις άφεσιν αμαρτιών to which he called his countrymen.