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THE

EVIDENCES

OF THE

CHRISTIAN RELIGION.

SECTION I.

I. General divifion of the following difcourfe, with regard to Pagan and Jewish Authors, who mention particulars relating to our Saviour.

II. Na probable that any fuch should be mentioned by Pagan Writers who lived at the fame time, from the Nature of fuch tranfactions.

III. Efpecially when related by the Jews: IV. And beard at a distance by those who pretended to as great miracles of their own. V. Befides that, no Pagan Writers of that age lived in Judæa or its Confines. B 3 VI. And

VI. And because many books of are loft.

VII. An inftance of one record proved to be authentic.

VIII. A fecond record of probable, though not undoubted, authority.

1.

HAT I may lay before you a full ftate of the fubject under our confideration, and methodize the feveral particulars that I touched upon in difcourfe with you; I shall first take notice of fuch Pagan Authors as have given their teftimony to the history of our Saviour; reduce thefe Authors under their respective claffes, and fhew what authority their teftimonies carry with them. Secondly, I fhall take notice of Jewish Authors in the fame light.

*

II. There are many reafons why you fhould not expect that matters of fuch a wonderful nature fhould be taken notice of by those eminent Pagan writers who were contemporaries with Jefus Chrift, or by those who lived before his Difciples had perfonally appeared among them, and af

*The author did not live to write this fecond part.

certained

abroad

certained the report which had gone concerning a life fo full of miracles. Suppofing fuch things had happened at this day in Switzerland, or among the Grifons, who make a greater figure in Europe than Judea did in the Roman Empire, would they be immediately believed by those who live at a great distance from them? Or would any certain account of them be tranfmitted into foreign countries, within fo fhort a space of time as that of our Saviour's public miniftry? Such kinds of news, though never so true, feldom gain credit, till fome time after they are tranfacted and exposed to the examination of the curious, who by laying together circumftances, atteftations, and Characters of those who are concerned in them, either receive, or reject what at firft none but eye-witneffes could abfolutely believe or disbelieve. In a cafe of this fort, it was natural for men of fenfe and learning to treat the whole account as fabulous, or at fartheft to fufpend their belief of it, until all things ftood together in their full light.

III. Befides, the Jews were branded not only for fuperftitions different from all the religions of the Pagan world, but

in a particular manner ridiculed for being a credulous people; fo that whatever reports of fuch a nature came out of that country were looked upon by the heathen world as falfe, frivolous, and improbable.

IV. We may further observe, that the ordinary practice of magic in thofe times, with the many pretended Prodigies, Divinations, Apparitions, and local Miracles among the Heathens, made them lefs attentive to fuch news from Judæa, 'till they had time to confider the nature, the occafion, and the end of our Saviour's miracles, and were awakened by many furprifing events to allow them any confidera

tion at all.

V. We are indeed told by St. Matthew, that the fame of our Saviour, during his life, went throughout all Syria, and that there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, Judæa, Decapolis, Idumea, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. Now had there been any hiftorians of thofe times and places, we might have expected to have feen in them fome account of those wonderful transactions in Judæa; but there is not any single author extant, in any kind, of that age, in any of thofe Countries.

VI. How

VI. How many books have perished in which poffibly there might have been mention of our Saviour? Look among the Romans, how few of their writings are come down to our times? In the space of two hundred years from our Saviour's birth, when there was fuch a multitude of writers in all kinds, how fmall is the number of Authors that have made their way to the present Age?

VII. One authentic Record, and that. the most authentic heathen Record, we are pretty fure is loft. I mean the account fent by the Governor of Judea, under whom our Saviour was judged, condemned, and crucified. It was the custom in the Roman Empire, as it is to this day in all the governments of the world, for the præfects and vice-roys of diftant provinces to tranfmit to their -Sovereign a fummary relation of every thing remarkable in their adminiftration. That Pontius Pilate, in his account, would have touched on fo extraordinary an event in Judæa, is not to be doubted; and that he actually did, we learn from Juftin Martyr, who lived about a hundred years after our Saviour's death, refided, made Converts, and fuffered martyrdom

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