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. Not probable that any such should be mentioned by Pagan writers who lived at the fame time, from the nature of fuch tranfactions: III. Especially when related by the Jews; IV. And heard at a distance by those who pretend to as great miracles of their own." V. Befides that, no Pagan writers of that age lived in Judæa, or its confines; VI. And because many books of that age are loft. VII. An instance of one record proved to be authentic. VIII. A fecond record of probable, though not undoubted authority. I. THAT I may lay before you a full ftate of the fubject under our confidera B tion, you; tion, and methodize the feveral particulars that I touched upon in discourse with I fhall firft take notice of fuch Pagan authors as have given their testimony to the history of our Saviour; reduce these authors under their respective claffes, and shew what authority their teftimonies carry with them. Secondly, I fhall take notice of Jewish a authors in the fame light. II. There are many reasons 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 Disciples had perfonally appeared among them, and afcertained the report which had gone abroad 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 Judæa did in the Roman a The Author did not live to write this fecond Part. Empire, Empire, would they be immediately believed by those who live at a great diftance from them? or would any certain account of them be transmitted 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 some 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-witnesses 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 farthest, to suspend their belief of it, until all things stood 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 as false, 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 furprising events to allow them any confideration 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, Idumæa, from beyond Jordan, and from Tyre and Sidon. Now had there been any historians of those times and places, we might have expected to have feen in them fome account of those wonder |