III. THE CHARACTER AND CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE SACRED WRITERS THEMSELVES.

For we judge in all other cases of the weight of testimony, by considering the character and circumstances of those who depose it. We examine the testimony itself; we inquire whether the natural and unerring signs of veracity are apparent in it; whether there is that honesty and consistency in the different parts of the account which are the sure marks of truth. We next examine the character and circumstances of those who give the testimony, whether they were in a situation to know the real truth, whether their moral and religious conduct gives a pledge of sincerity, whether their temporal interests, previous prejudices and habits, and subsequent conduct, throw any light upon their governing motive.

If there are more witnesses than one, we inquire into their number, the agreement or otherwise of their accounts, their conduct towards each other and before the face of the world.

Upon principles like these human life is governed. We act continually, in the most important concerns, and in every department of human knowledge, upon testimony. The word of one man whom we know to be of unimpeachable sincerity, determines us every day. But if two persons of undeniable veracity, who have no apparent motive to deceive us, and who are evidently seeking our welfare, bear witness to a plain fact occurring under their own knowledge, we consider it a most reasonable ground of confidence. Testimony may indeed deceive, that is, some testimony under some circumstances may deceive-but the infinitely larger portion of all testimony is true; and it is upon the footing of that immense majority of true cases, that the few-the comparatively fewfalse ones obtain credit. Indeed, the solemn declaration of two or more individuals of character as to facts of which they are competent judges, persevered

in under every suffering, sustained by unvaried consistency, and accompanied by a pure, beneficent, and holy life, never yet deceived-no case was ever produced in which such testimony was untrue.14

Let us apply these remarks to the sacred writers. We have appealed to the authenticity of their books, and to all other accessible sources of information. These prove the credibility of the principal facts of their writings. Let us appeal now to themselves, in order to see whether we may repose that implicit confidence in them, as to be able to rely also upon the

WHOLE OF THEIR STATEMENTS IN EVERY PARTI

CULAR; in other words, whether the external testimony adduced to the chief facts, is supported by the number, character, circumstances, and manner of writing and acting of the witnesses themselves, so as to prove ALL THEIR FACTS AND STATEMENTS to be credible.

1. We have here twelve separate witnesses of the specific facts of the gospel history-to whom three more (St. Mark, St. Luke, and St. Paul) may be added. Of these fifteen witnesses, eight composed writings, in twenty-seven several works, published within a few years of the events which they record; and works read and examined by their contemporaries, both friends and foes, in every part of the known world. Such is the number of agreeing witnesses to every one of the facts, all harmonizing in their testimony to them, and especially to the fact of the resurrection of their Lord.

2. These persons had a full knowledge of the things they attested. They were eye-witnesses, or the companions of those who were. Of the four evangelists, one probably wrote his account within six or eight years of the crucifixion; (A. D. 38 or 40 ;) a second, following his steps, but publishing his his

14 Paley.

tory at a distance and under the eye of St. Peter,15 came about A. D. 61, at an interval of twenty or thirty years. The evangelist St. Luke, from whom my text is taken, appeared soon after (A. D. 63) to set in order "the things then most surely believed❞— to gather them from those "who had been eye-witnesses from the beginning;" and, having a "perfect understanding of all things from the very first," to afford a "certainty" to Christians of the " things in which they had been instructed." After an interval again of about thirty years, (A. D. 97,) the last surviving apostle completes the sacred story.

In the meantime, the history of the first propagation of the gospel is given by St. Luke, a companion of one of the greatest of the apostles, and numerous epistles are addressed to the infant churches. If any witnesses, then, were ever fully acquainted with what they relate, they are these.

3. The testimony which they bear, is to facts of which they were perfectly competent to judge-the life, discourses, miracles, and resurrection of their Master-events which passed before their eyes, and were the objects of their continual and most familiar observation. If Plato is deemed a competent witness of the events of the life of Socrates, his master; or any modern biographer of the actions of an illustrious person with whom he has constantly conversed-Boswell, for instance, of his friend, the great moralist, Johnson-then surely the evangelists are competent witnesses of the life of Christ.

It is an extraordinary, but singular fact, that no history since the commencement of the world, has been written by so great a number of the [friends and companions of an illustrious person as that of our

15 So Papias, Clemens Alexandrinus, Caius, Eusebius, &c. testify. See p. 112, supra,

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Lord. One contemporary history is a rarity-two is a coincidence scarcely known-four is, so far as appears, unparalleled.

4. These witnesses were persons of transparent integrity of character: whether you regard the apostles generally, or the eight writers of the New Testament, or merely the four evangelists; simplicity, honesty, good faith, are apparent in all they say and do and write. The style and manner of their books have been mentioned. But it is peculiarly appropriate to this place to notice the inimitable artlessness and impartiality which are on the very face of all their testimony. It never enters into their minds to consider how this or the other action may affect their own reputation or appear to mankind. They lay the facts before the world. If the reader will not credit their testimony, there is no help for it; they tell the truth, the whole truth, just as it happened, and nothing else.16 Who can avoid noticing, for example, the honesty with which they record their own failings, the dulness of their apprehension, their unbelief, their pride, their emulations, their disputes, the rebukes they brought upon themselves, their disgraceful flight and cowardice, the treachery of one of their number, and the denial of his Master by another ?17 Most of them, moreover, were plain, illiterate men, no way qualified by education or habit for attempting an imposture. Their accounts apparently vary from each other in a thousand respects, as we before observed; but their witness to the broad facts of their Master's life is decided, uniform, conclusive. The undesigned coincidences, which we

18

16 T. H. Horne.

17 The aggravated circumstance of the cock crowing twice, as recorded in the gospel, written under the eye of the penitent apostle, is deserving of remark. See Mark xiv. 66–71.

18 The fine remark of Sir Isaac Newton on the traces of local memory in St. Matthew is well known.

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have also referred to, between the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the epistles, confirm the credibility of them all. The letters to Timothy, Titus, Philemon, confidential, individual friends, contain no other facts than those to the churches of Ephesus, or to the Christian converts scattered over the whole of Asia.20 The epistles, which abound with rebukes, appeal as boldly to the same facts, as those which contain commendation.

5. The apostles again were men of sound minds, and by no means credulous or rash. The prominent facts they relate required nothing more than that the witnesses' minds should be sane and honestly used. And where is any vestige in their accounts, of credulity or enthusiasm? Were ever men more calm, deliberative, aware of all they were about, free from any trait of undue excitation of mind? I appeal to their writings. I appeal to every step of their conduct. So far were they from being credulous, that they were reluctant, slow, backward to believe the truth of any thing at all extraordinary. The approach of their Master on the sea, they credited not till he assured them it was himself. At his apprehension by the band of soldiers, they were astonished and fled. His resurrection they could scarcely be induced to believe. And as to enthusiasm, where are narratives so stamped with the character of self-possession, soberness, impartiality? There is not a note of exclamation throughout the history. And what can be more consistent, luminous, unadorned, straightforward, than their whole account?

6. Then, they relate events at the spot where they

19" He who is telling the truth, is apt to state his facts and leave them to their fate; he speaks as one having authority, and cares not about the why or the wherefore, because it never occurs to him that such particulars are wanted to make his statements credible."-Blunt, 27.

20 1 Peter i. 1.