PROPOSITION III. The books of the New Testament were written by those persons to whom they are ascribed, and contain a faithful history of Christ and his religion; and the account there given of both, may be securely relied upon as strictly true. THE books which contain the history of Christ and of the Christian Religion, are the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. That the gospels were written by the persons whose name they bare, namely, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there is no more reason to doubt, than that the histories which we have under the names of Xenophon, Livy, or Tacitus, were written by those authors. A great many passages are alluded to or quoted from the Evangelists, ex actly as we read them now, by a regular succession of Christian writers, from the time of the Apostles down to this hour; and at a very early period their names are mentioned as the authors of their respective gospels; which is more than can be said for any other ancient historian whatever.* These books have always been considered by the whole Christian world, from the Apostolic age, as containing a faithful history of their religion, and therefore they ought to be received as such; just as we allow the Koran to contain a genuine account of the Mahometan religion, and the sacred books of the Bramins to contain a true representation of the Hindoo religion. That all the facts related in these writings, and the accounts given of every thing our Saviour said and did, are * Lardner's Credibility, b. i, and Paley's Evidences, vol, I. also strictly true, we have the most substantial grounds for believing : For, in the first place, the writers had the very best means of information, and could not possibly be deceived themselves. And, in the next place, they could have no conceivable inducement for imposing upon others. St. Matthew and St. John were two of our Lord's Apostles; his constant companions and attendants throughout the whole of his ministry. They were actually present at the scenes which they describe; eye witnesses of the facts, and ear witnesses of the discourses, which they relate. St. Mark and St. Luke though not themselves Apostles, yet were the contemporaries and companions of Apostles, and in habits of society and friendship with those who had been present at the transactions which they record. St. Luke expressly says this in the be ginning of his gospel, which opens with. these words: "Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed amongst us; even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou might est know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed." St. Luke also being the author of the Acts of the Apostles, we have, for the writers of these five books, persons who had the most perfect knowledge of every. thing they relate, either from their own personal observation, or from immediate communications with those who saw and heard every thing that passed. They could not, therefore, be themselves deceived; nor could they have the least inducement, or the least inclination, to deceive others. They were plain, honest, artless, unlearned men, in very humble occupa tions of life, and utterly incapable of inventing or carrying on such a refined and complicated system of fraud, as the Christian Religion must have been if it was not true. There are, besides, the strongest marks of fairness, candor, simplicity and truth throughout the whole of their narratives. Their greatest enemies have never attempted to throw the least stain upon their characters; and how then can they be supposed capable 'of so gross an imposition as that of asserting and propagating the most impudent fiction? They could gain by it neither pleasure, profit nor power. On the contrary, it brought upon them the most dreadful evils, and even death it |