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were no better than rumours of strange stories, dispersed among illiterate superstitious people, and believed before time could be afforded for investigation by the wise. Could they support their impudent assertion, it would, after all, serve them in little stead for the establishment of their inference, among any other, at least, than their own demi-deistical sect: for all the mental biases, all the superstitions of the Jewish people, were AGAINST the miracles, by being against the mission of our Lord; particularly in the vicinity of his own country, where a prophet has no honour. (Matt. xiii. 57.) That people were fools and slow of belief. (Luke, xxiv. 25.) Moreover, many of the miracles were wrought in Jerusalem; "not in a corner" (Acts, xxvi. 26), as a bold appeal reminded his enemies, but in full day; in the midst of learned scribes, interested chief priests, and inveterate enemies; and when all the multitudes of Palestine were crowded together in the metropolis at a public feast. And did not these men manifest a consciousness that further investigation would be their ruin, by saying, If we let him alone, all the world will believe on him (John, xi 28); and still further, by putting him to the silence and inoperativeness of death? So that, even were the ministry of our Lord confined within twelve months, his miracles would be substantiated beyond the shadow of a doubt.

But any man who reads Dr. White's Diatessaron, or Dr. Macknight's Harmony, or the learned work of Lightfoot, will be convinced that the events of our Lord's ministry, as recorded by the Evangelists, cannot possibly have occupied less space than four passovers, or three years and a half from his baptism by John in Jordan. Our Lord, after his baptism and temptation, and the miracle of Cana, kept the first passover. (John, ii. 13.) After returning unto Galilee, he came back to keep the second passover, when the miracle was wrought at Bethesda. (John, v. 1.) Then he traversed the sea of Galilee (John, vi. 1); passover occurs. (John, vi. 4.)

and the third He next went

secretly (John, vii. 10), to keep at Jerusalem the feast of tabernacles (John, vii. 2), which happened in September; and afterward, in December, the feast of dedication. (John, x. 22.) He is then found beyond Jordan, at Bethany, and in Ephraim, until the period of the fourth passover. (John, xi. 55.)

In this chronology, St. John distinctly specifies four passovers from the first miracle in Cana; that is, to the crucifixion, three passovers, and a feast. Now, as the Jews had only three solemn annual feasts, and St. John elsewhere specifies the two lesser ones, we con clude that this feast was also a passover; and the conclusion reconciles itself with the testi

mony of Eusebius*, who dates the baptism of Christ in the fifteenth, and his death in the nineteenth of Tiberius: a chronology supported by Phlegon and Dion †.

year

Some Socinians have attempted to simplify, alias to mutilate their faith, by confining it to the four Gospels, as containing all things necessary to be believed; while they assert the Epistles to have reference only to the times when they were written, and to the churches unto which they were addressed. The hypothesis, if it were admitted, would stand them in no stead, as far as relates to the doctrines of the divinity and pre-existence of Christ, which are as distinctly set forth in the Gospels as in the Epistles. And as to other points, it is clear that our Lord, at the time of his ascension, did not consider the information, communicated by himself, as complete; but referred to more explicit ulterior intelligence under the guidance of the Holy Ghost. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he. will guide you unto all truth."

Baffled in their aims at narrowing the period of miraculous agency, and the number of things to be believed, the last blow of Socinianism against

* Euseb. Chron. Tertull. adv. Jud. c. 8.

Lib. lviii. p. 732.

John, xvi. 12, 13.

the authenticity of Scripture consists in the endeavour to reduce the number of the witnesses. Three out of the four Evangelists are said to have copied from each other, or from some common original. I know not if I state this cavil quite correctly; but could it be established, it would prove but of little service in shaking the certainty of the facts recorded. The excellent principle laid down by Paley, namely, that general agreement and trivial discrepancy afford the strongest evidence of the absence of collusion, will here again deserve to be recollected. And as to the identity of words, in which some passages are recorded, we observe, first, that it is only partial; and secondly, that the transcription of correct, consecrated, and inspired phraseology, from one record to another, impeaches not the fact of both authors being competent witnesses. Justin Martyr makes mention, several times, of the Apomneumata of the Apostles, which, he says, were called Evangelia. Now, it has been asserted, that these Apomneumata were a collection of sayings and transactions of our Lord, recorded by the Apostles before any of our Gospels were written: that three of the Gospels were in a manner copied from them; and that neither the original document nor any of these abstracts were termed Evangelium before the time of Justin. If these apostolic memoirs had ever existed, they would have been a record of

high authority; that record all churches would have used and it would have been strange indeed, if, after having been generally adopted until the year 155, it should have suddenly disappeared, and that after it had obtained such publicity, as to receive the name of Evangelium. But what authority is there for the existence or repute of this early document? No writer, before or since, or contemporary with Justin, has mentioned it; and no vestige of it remains. Papias, earlier than Justin, A. D. 116, likewise quotes the Gospel of St. Matthew, and that of St. Mark. Polycarp, contemporary with the Apostles, mentions the four Gospels; but says nothing concerning these Autoptic memoirs. Clement is equally silent, though he mentions. the four Gospels: and says, that those containing the genealogies were first written. Irenæus, A. D. 178, and Tertullian, A. D. 200, may be cited as similar evidences. By several subsequent writers these memoirs are alluded to; but always among spurious Gospels. Eusebius makes no mention of such pretended records; adding, that the Apostles wrote no Gospels-that Peter was too modest to write one-that Matthew wrote by entreaty of the Jews, and John, to supply defects-that John used nowritten Gospel; and that many Gospels were forged by heretics*.

VOL. III.

* Christ. Obs. 1808, p. 623.

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