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have accrued to them, had it been observed. Thus the churning of the ocean, with all its portentous results, could have been seen by no mortal eye; and the same may be said of the exploits of Rama, Crishna, Hanuman, and almost every extant legend of their gods: it is seldom indeed that a deity is permitted to stoop so low as to perform an action within the sphere of man's observation; while by far the greater number of the New Testament wonders were, so to speak, purely wonders of humanity, compassionate, and, except in the effecting power, every way within the compass of our nature. It would lead us too far to show the fallacy of ascribing the one class of miracles to an imagined grandeur, commensurate with the loftiness of the subject; or to set forth the simple and condescending intelligibility of the other, so becoming a God of mercy, addressing beings of limited capacity, but endowed with senses to comprehend, and reason to appreciate, enough for all the purposes of time and of eternity; so suitable to a God who adapts the soil and climate to the plant, and the plant to its position; who apportions to the body the sustenance its nature requires; and frames that body according to the food provided for it; and who might therefore be expected to address man, as man, in language and by signs compatible with the degree of intelligence given him in the ranks of creation. But we have only space to answer an obvious inquiry. Are there not, it may be asked, parts of the Christian scheme beyond the grasp of man's intellect; and descriptions of unearthly wonders, displayed but to a very few? And might not the heathen story, objected to because unearthly, have been in like manner supernaturally revealed to one or two, and by them made more generally known? I answer, there are such things in our books; and any similar mysteries, might, if true, have been revealed as is above supposed. But then we must have something to authenticate these revelations; some evidence that comes within the comprehension of a rational being, that a message has been vouchsafed from heaven. Such evidence we offer in the kind of miracles our books record; the reality of which we have shown by general considerations, and shall further establish by direct and positive historica! testimony, and other infallible marks of truth; and such evidence, and as strongly supported, we require from others.

But we may confidently assert that no such evidence can be adduced in favour of any rival creed: there will either be no sufficient proof of divine commission; or no clear, definite, and contemporary account, supported by numerous public acts done openly before the world; or an interval will have elapsed between the facts and the compilation of their history, or the institution of their commemorating ordinances; some fallacy will surely be detected; and the argument we are now urging must be foregone.

But it is time to bring this chapter to a close. It has been inserted here as including, under one general proof, some particulars that have now to be presented separately, and on different grounds: and I have now to introduce the student to the principles on which the weight due to the testimony of history is estimated and awarded.

CHAPTER III.

ON HISTORICAL EVIDENCE GENERALLY; AND THE
RULES BY WHICH IT IS EXAMINED.

SECT. I.

Position of the contemporaries of inspired men compared with that of the present age.-Testimony of others our ordinary guide in secular affairs.-The necessity that it should be so.-Conveyed through the intervention of writing.-This illustrated by examples.-The records of past transactions.-Guides for judging of the authenticity of these.-Example of general history.

Bearing in mind the distinction we have laid down between miracles considered as the proof of a divine Revelation, and the arguments evincing the truth of the miracles themselves, let me again distinctly repeat, that the difference between the evidence on which this truth depends, with reference to ourselves and the contemporaries of the prophets and apostles, is simply this: they were eye-witnesses of these wonders; or at least they might have been, we are dependent on the report of others.* There is now no new Revelation to be made; no change, no addition to any thing before made known. If there were, we might look for some miraculous attestation of it now. But the ordinary evidence of past transactions does not require a miracle to substantiate it. The men of those days judged of the reality of the miracle by the exercise of their ordinary powers of perception. We have but to apply the ordinary rules of every day

It will be seen I am not now speaking of that spiritual application of the life giving principles of Christianity which results in a change of heart and conduct; but of that external assent to the truth of its evidences, which the judgment of an ordinary unconverted mind may give.

life; and of those investigations by which we establish the credibility of past history. We may draw the parallel further. It was competent to any one then to credit the testimony of a trust-worthy friend; but if either incredulity, or a real interest in the case, or any other motive, induced him to become a personal witness, he might do so. And there are now many of our fellow men who have sifted to the bottom the testimony on which these truths depend; and have satisfied themselves of their reality; it may content us to take these at their word; or if this like us not, and we are incredulous, or from a spirit of independence, interest, or of opposition, are backward to pin our faith upon the dictates of another, the same train of evidence is open to every ordinary capacity. Labour and perseverance will, it is true, be requisite; but there is no mystery; no subtilty of metaphysical reasoning; nothing of abstruse philosophy, no intricacies of science or logic. We have to deal with facts, and the evidence of facts; and apply to them the ordinary rules on which our belief of the present and the past is grounded. There may be difficulties and obscurities on a few inconsiderable points; but there is no real contradiction; and so overwhelming, and withal so simple, and intelligible, is the mass of evidence we have to produce, that these vanish into a mere nothing in the comparison. And when I say that we depend on the ordinary evidence of testimony I must beg to be understood as meaning ordinary in kind only, and not in degree. For we are prepared to maintain that no extant history can summon to its vindication, a tithe, nay a thousandth part, of the host of witnesses that force themselves on our attention in behalf of the Christian story; and that when our cause is competently pleaded, the man who will fairly and impartially weigh the pile of depositions and pleadings that can be heaped before him; and patiently go through the whole with a mind open to conviction, will be put in the position almost of an eye witness, and will rise from the investigation, as well satisfied with the proof he possesses, so far as it relates to external facts, as ever an actual hearer returned from the preaching of a Peter or a Paul.

I have said we need but to apply to the subject before us the ordinary rules of every day life.In practice what is it we depend on? Perhaps those who have not thought much

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on the subject are not aware in how extensive a degree they are dependent on the good faith of others. A little reflection will convince us how little there is of which strictly speaking we have personal knowledge; which we ourselves have seen or heard, or which has come, in some way or other, within the cognizance of our senses. That such and such a disease is accompanied by such and such an acute pain, we can only know experimentally, in the fullest sense of the word, if we have ourselves suffered; for even to witness the sufferings of another under its influence, would clearly be but a partial and imperfect acquaintance with the sensible acuteness of the pain. But leaving these stricter examples, and allowing a more popular and extended use of ordinary terms; a thousand instances will present themselves, demonstrating the very limited nature of the personal experience and sphere of action of almost every man. Even of those who possess the best opportunities, and the greatest powers of observation, this remark must hold. The enterprising traveller himself, who has personally visited extensive portions of the globe, cannot see all; and in the' countries he most minutely explores, must owe something to the information of others, as well as to his own observation; and the notions of by far the largest majority of men as to distant places are derived, not even from the communications of private friends; but from accounts furnished by writers personally unknown. But it is not only in matters of general interest that this principle appears. It shows itself still more strikingly in the way that men stake large portions of their wealth, nay sometimes risk their entire fortunes, on the report of another; and we need not add, that the caution of most men, where their own interest is concerned, is such as to make this no mean test, wherever it can be applied. The merchant of Bombay or Calcutta learns from his agent, or possibly merely from a Newspaper, the state of the London, or the China market, and makes his purchases, and ships his goods on the faith of what he has heard. At best he may have a partner or a relative as his informant; but sad experience tells us it is far from impossible that even these may be designing men. Suppose he has been deceived, he may be ruined, or at least his fortune greatly impaired; yet however anxious those engaged in commerce may be, lest a change in the

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