erally, what no Christian will deny, that a religious spirit pervades the books of the Old Testament. Hence they are, and were especially to the early converts to our faith, "profitable," &c. I say especially to the early converts, because at the time when St. Paul wrote there was no collection of the books of the New Testament, there was no Christian literature, and certainly nothing in heathen literature, supposing them to have had any familiarity with it, which could supply the place of the books of the Old Testament as a source of religious instruction and religious feelings.

But the Gospels themselves afford evidence the most decisive of the question whether they bear the stamp of God's infallibility, or the impress of human minds.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL REMARKS ON STRAUSS'S THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.

SINCE the first edition of my work on the Genuineness of the Gospels appeared, an English translation of Strauss's "Life of Jesus" has been published. It is remarkable, considering the general coincidence between the subject of his work and my own, that, with the exception of a few incidental observations, I have hitherto found no occasion, nor even any suitable opportunity, to take notice of it. It contains nothing which invalidates the statement of facts from which I have reasoned, or touches upon the arguments which I have drawn from those facts.

The theory of Strauss respecting the origin of Christianity, which I have formerly very briefly explained, is essentially coincident with speculations advanced by Volney in a once famous book,

* Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels, 2d Ed., Vol. III. p. lix. Compare Vol. I. pp. 118 - 120.

"The Ruins."

He says:

"Conformably to the calculations received by the Jews, nearly six thousand years had passed since the imagined creation of the world." That time had been fixed for a renovation of the world by a great deliverer of whom there was a general expectation throughout Asia. "This coincidence produced a fermentation in men's minds. Nothing was thought of but an approaching end. Men interrogated the hierophants and their mystic books, which assigned various periods for it. They expected the Restorer. In consequence of talking about him, some one said that he had seen him; or we may suppose that some enthusiast believed himself to be that personage, and collected partisans. These partisans, deprived of their chief by an incident, true without doubt, but which passed in obscurity, gave occasion, by the stories which they told, to a rumor which was gradually organized into history. On this foundation, all the circumstances of the mythological traditions were very soon arranged, and the result was an authentic and complete system, which it was not permitted to doubt." *

"Or, dans les calculs admis par les Juifs, on commençait à comp

Conformably to what has been before said, Strauss supposes that there was among the Jews

ter près de six mille ans depuis la création (fictive) du monde. Cette coïncidence produisit de la fermentation dans les esprits. On ne s'occupa plus que d'une fin prochaine; on interrogea les hierophantes et leur livres mystiques, qui en assignèrent divers termes; on attendit le réparateur; à force d'en parler, quelqu'un dit l'avoir vu, ou même un individu exalté crut l'être et se fit des partisans, lesquels, privés de leur chef par un incident vrai sans doute, mais passé obscurément, donnèrent lieu, par leurs récits, à une rumeur graduellement organisée en histoire: sur ce premier canevas établi, toutes les circonstances des traditions mythologiques vinrent bientôt se placer, et il en résulta un système authentique et complet, dont il ne fut plus permis de douter."-Les Ruines, (Bruxelles, 1830,) p. 224.

This theory of Volney is immediately followed in his work by another irreconcilable with it, borrowed from his contemporary, Dupuis, the author of the "Origine de tous les Cultes." According to the latter theory, Christ is an allegorical personage, and Christianity is an allegory representing certain celestial phenomena. In this allegory Christ is the sun. Volney (pp. 227, 290) derives the name Christ from the Hebrew word, heres or cheres, which signifies the sun, and the name Jesus from Yes, "which is formed by the union of three letters, the numerical value of which is 608, one of the solar periods.” It would be hard to find in the book of Volney himself anything more astonishing than the marvellous absurdity of these etymologies. Certainly it would be very difficult to find anything like them in the works of a writer having a reputation for common learning and common honesty. It deserves notice, that when their absurdity was commented on by Dr. Priestley, though Volney replied to his work, he did not undertake to make any defence on this topic. See Priestley's "Observations on the Increase of Infidelity," (1797,) p. 118, seqq.; and his "Letters to Mr. Volney," (1797,) p. 23.

an eager expectation of their Messiah. Jesus, at least during a part of his ministry, regarded himself as the Messiah, as "the greatest and last of the prophetic race." He was consequently so regarded by his followers. The expectation which the Jews entertained of their Messiah was definite, and "characterized by many important particulars." They had formed many imaginations concerning him connected with allegorical and typical misinterpretations of the Old Testament; and, after the appearance of Jesus, there were some among the Jews who converted their imaginations of what the Messiah was to be into fictions of what Jesus had been, and embodied those fictions in a history of his ministry.

I have said, "some among the Jews." This mode of expression is not adopted by Strauss himself, but it is necessarily implied; for the followers of Jesus were a small minority of the Jewish nation. The Jewish people generally rejected him, as not their Messiah, and their leaders persecuted and crucified him as a religious impostor and blasphemer. Nor, according to Strauss, were the supposed fictions concerning him propagated by his immediate disciples, who had witnessed his deeds and listened to his words, his Apostles and