ance, and at or near the place of action, proper fcrutiny into the cafe could not well have been made, in order to form a judgment whether thofe facts had really taken place, or not. So that it must have been in the power of thofe hiftorians to have put what facts they pleafed upon the people then, and confequently, upon pofterity; becaufe they could not have been easily detected herein by thofe into whose bands their hiftories were put. What could the Believers in Italy, or Greece, or in any other remote country, do in this cafe? their great diftance, both of time and place, from when and where those miracles were wrought, put it out of their power to make a strict and proper enquiry into the truth of them. Nor is it likely they fhould be difpofed to attempt it, fuppofing the cafe to have been attended with less difficulty; feeing their faith ftrongly prejudiced them in favour of those miracles, which must have rendered fuch an attempt useless in their estimation. And as to unbelievers, they are out of the question; feeing those biftories were not published then, as books are published now, and thereby exposed to the view of all; but were put into, and kept in the hands of believers, by

which means unbelievers were prevented from confuting them, had it been in their power, or inclination to do it. And as to the people who lived at, or near those places where most of Christ's miracles were wrought, it is by no means likely that those hiftories ever came to their hands; nor, îndeed, do they feem to be written with that view, feeing they were wrote in Greek, a language that thofe illiterate Hebrews must have been strangers to, which is a circumftance of confequence in the prefent cafe. For had the hiftories referred to, which are supposed to be of the utmost concern to mankind, been written immediately after the refurrection of Chrift, whilst he was perfo nally prefent with his difciples, and thereby was capable of correcting every error, which otherwise those hiftories would be liable to; and had they been written in the common vulgar language of the Hebrews, and

then

*The learned in antiquity fay, that there was a gof pel wrote, or fuppofed to be wrote, by St. Matthew the Apoftle; which gofpel was wrote in Hebrew for the use of the Nazarene Chriftians. But then, as this gofpel was not written till about thirty years after Chrift's afcenfion, and when it was written it was not expofed to publick view, but (like the other gospels) was kept as a moit valuable and facred treasure in the hands of the heads and leaders of the Chriftian fect; of which the learned fay,

that

then made fo publick at, or near the place of action, as to have put it into the power of any inquifitive perfons to make a proper fcrutiny into the cafe; this would have been fuitable to true wisdom and goodness, and was what the great importance of the subject feemed to require. But whereas those hiftories were written ooccafionally, many years after the facts took place, in a language which it may well be fuppofed the people of Gallilee, Capernaum, &c. did not underftand; and thofe hiftories, when written, were not exposed to the view of Christians in general*, much lefs to the view of unbelievers, but each gospel was depofited with the beads or clergy of the fect or party of Chris-.

tians.

that this was the cafe of all the gofpels till three hundred years after Chrift; (fee a Differtation, or enquiry, concerning the canonical authority of the gospel according to Matthew, and the reafons upon which it hath been anciently rejected by Hereticks) fo it is altogether unlikely that this gospel should have ever come into the hands of thofe people before whom the facts recorded in it are faid to be wrought, by which means it must have been wholly out of the power of unbelievers to have confuted it, fup-, pofing it, or any part of it, to have been forged.

*The learned fay, that, in the fecond and third centuries, (as to the first there is very little known concerning it) the gofpels were read in the affemblies of Chriftians,. and that was all the laity could know of them; the books themselves being laid up in the archieves of the bishops, as a treasure too facred for the common people to be entrusted with.

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tians who adhered to it, and efteemed it to be genuine; which, leaders or clergy were, for the most part, fituated, or had their habitations, far diftant from the place of action, at least this was the cafe of all the Gentile churches; by which means a proper fcrutiny (in the nature of the thing) feems to have been effectually barred; this, furely, to say the leaft, must render those hifto ries lefs credible. And as it does not appear that a proper fcrutiny ever was made, or could well be made, with regard to the facts in queftion, which yet feems necessary to have been done, in order to render those Facts more certain; fo from hence it may seem to follow, that the Chriftians in after-times could not poffibly make good their allegations with regard to those facts, any other way than barely to appeal to those biftories, which is the cafe with us, at this day; nor could their opponents make good the contrary; and therefore, in their dif putes with the Chriftians, they did not attempt it. There have been four histories

*

tranf

The learned fay, that, in the first ages of Chriftianity, there were many more hiftories of the life of Chrift than the four here referred to; and that it was a difputable

tranfmitted to us, each of which, perhaps, has been received as true by fome Chriftians in every age, from their first appearing down to this time; but then, they have been thus admitted all along upon the authority and credit of the hiftorians only, for any thing that farther appears in their favour. I am fenfible it is urged, that the oppofers of Christianity, in their controverfies with the Chriftians, concerning the divine miffion of Jefus Chrift, did not deny that the miracles afcribed to Chrift were wrought by him, but only faid that thofe miracles were wrought by the power of the devil. But then, it is to be observed, that we have this account, not from those oppofers, whofe writings are said to be loft, but from the written apologies of the Chriftians, which render those accounts less fit to be relied upon; feeing men'. in controverfy do not always give a just and true account of the opinions, and arguments,

and

point which of them were genuine, and which not, Now, if this was the cafe in fact, then it is very probable that thofe hiftorians differed greatly, elfe what fhould give occafion for fuch difpute; and then it weakens the credit of those we have, because we do not know what grounds or authority the church, that is, the clergy, had, or could have, to receive thefe, and reject the reft. And, I think, it would be a very hard cafe, were men's future fafety to have any dependance upon things fo uncertain.