these words to have been suggested by the transaction related in Josephus, and to have been falsely ascribed to Christ; and observe what extraordinary coincidences (accidentally, as in that case it must have been) attend the forger's mistake. First, that we have a Zacharias in the book of Chronicles, whose death, and the manner of it, corresponds with the allusion. of the name of Judas within ten years, who Now suppose it to have been so; suppose were all leaders of insurrections; and it is likewise recorded by this historian, that upon the death of Herod the Great, (which agrees very well with the time of the commotion referred to by Gamaliel, and with his manner of stating that time," before these days,") there were innumerable disturbances in Judea.* Archbishop Usher was of opinion, that one of the three Judases above-mentioned was Gamaliel's Theudas ;+ and that with a less varia Secondly, that although the name of this tion of the name than we actually find in the person's father be erroneously put down in the Gospels, where one of the twelve apostles is call-Gospel, yet we have a way of accounting for ed, by Luke, Judas; and by Mark, Thad- the error by showing another Zacharias in the deus. Origen, however he came at his in- Jewish Scriptures, much better known than formation, appears to have believed that there the former, whose patronymic was actually that was an impostor of the name of Theudas be- which appears in the text. fore the nativity of Christ. § Every one who thinks upon the subject, will IV. Matt. xxiii. 34. "Wherefore, behold, find these to be circumstances which could I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and not have met together in a mistake, which did scribes; and some of them ye shall kill and cru- not proceed from the circumstances themselves. cify; and some of them shall ye scourge in I have noticed, I think, all the difficulties your synagogues, and persecute them from city of this kind. They are few: some of them to city; that upon you may come all the right-admit of a clear, others of a probable solution. eous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood The reader will compare them with the numof righteous Abel, unto the blood of Zacharias, ber, the variety, the closeness, and the satisson of Barachias, whom ye slew between the tem-factoriness, of the instances which are to be ple and the altar.” set against them; and he will remember the There is a Zacharias, whose death is related scantiness, in many cases, of our intelligence, in the second book of Chronicles,|| in a man- and that difficulties always attend imperfec ner which perfectly supports our Saviour's al- information. lusion. But this Zacharias was the son of Jehoiada. There is also Zacharias the prophet; who was the son of Barachiah, and is so described in the superscription of his prophecy, but of whose death we have no acccount. I have little doubt, but that the first Zacharias was the person spoken of by our Saviour: and that the name of the father has been since added, or changed, by some one, who took it from the title of the prophecy, which happened to be better known to im than the history in the Chronicles. CHAPTER VII. Undesigned Coincidences. BETWEEN the letters which bear the name of Saint Paul in our collection, and his history in the Acts of the Apostles, there exist many notes of correspondency. The simple perusal of the writings is sufficient to prove that neither the history was taken from the letters, There is likewise a Zacharias, the son of nor the letters from the history. And the unBaruch, related by Josephus to have been slain designedness of the agreements (which undein the temple a few years before the destruc- signedness is gathered from their latency, their tion of Jerusalem. It has been insinuated, minuteness, their obliquity, the suitableness that the words put into our Saviour's mouth of the circumstances in which they consist, to contain a reference to this transaction, and the places in which those circumstances occur, were composed by some writer, who either and the circuitous references by which they confounded the time of the transaction with are traced out) demonstrates that they have our Saviour's age, or inadvertently overlooked not been produced by meditation, or by any the anachronism. "And the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, which stood above the people, and said unto them, Thus saith God, Why transgress ye the commandments of the Lord, that ye cannot pros forsaken you. fraudulent contrivance. But coincidences, from which these causes are excluded, and which are too close and numerous to be accounted for by accidental concurrences of fiction, must necessarily have truth for their foundation. This argument appeared to my mind of so much value (especially for its assuming no per? Because ye have forsaken the Lord, he hath also thing beside the existence of the books,) that And they conspired against him, and I have pursued it through Saint Paul's thirteen epistles, in a work published by me four years ago, under the title of Hora Pauline. I stoned him with stones, at the commandment of the king, in the court of the house of the Lord." 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21. semblance to the style of the Gospel inscribed with Saint John's name, so far as that resem blance can be expected to appear which is not in simple narrative, so much as in reflections, and in the representation of discourses. Writings so circumstanced, prove themselves, and one another, to be genuine. This correspon am sensible how feebly any argument which John's Gospel, and of Saint John's Epistle. depends upon an induction of particulars, is The style of Saint John's is not at all the style represented without examples. On which ac-of Saint Paul's Epistles, though both are very count, I wished to have abridged my own vo- singular; nor is it the style of Saint James's lume, in the manner in which I have treated or of Saint Peter's Epistles: but it bears a reDr. Lardner's in the preceding chapter. But, upon making the attempt, I did not find it in my power to render the articles intelligible by fewer words than I have there used. I must be content, therefore, to refer the reader to the work itself. And I would particularly invite his attention to the observations which are made in it upon the first three epistles. Idency is the more valuable, as the epistle itself persuade myself that he will find the proofs, both of agreement, and undesignedness, supplied by these epistles, sufficient to support the conclusion which is there maintained, in favour both of the genuineness of the writings, and the truth of the narrative. It remains only, in this place, to point out how the argument bears upon the general question of the Christian history. asserts, in St. John's manner indeed, but in terms sufficiently explicit, the writer's personal knowledge of Christ's history: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the word of life; that which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you." Who would not desire,-who perceives not the value of an account, delivered by a writer so well First, Saint Paul in these letters affirms, in unequivocal terms, his own performance of mi-informed as this? racles, and, what ought particularly to be remembered, "That miracles were the signs of an Apostle." If this testimony come from St. Paul's own hand, it is invaluable. And that it does so, the argument before us fixes in my mind a firm assurance. CHAPTER VIII. Of the History of the Resurrection. Secondly, it shows that the series of action, represented in the epistles of Saint Paul, was THE history of the resurrection of Christ is real; which alone lays a foundation for the a part of the evidence of Christianity but 1 proposition which forms the subject of the first do not know, whether the proper strength of part of our present work, viz. that the original this passage of the Christian history, or wherewitnesses of the Christian history devoted them-in its peculiar value, as a head of evidence. selves to lives of toil, suffering, and danger, in consists, be generally understood. It is not consequence of their belief of the truth of that history, and for the sake of communicating the knowledge of it to others. that, as a miracle, the resurrection ought to be accounted a more decisive proof of supernatural agency than other miracles are; it is not that, as it stands in the Gospels, it is better attested than some others; it is not, for either of these reasons, that more weight belongs to it than to other miracles, but for the following, viz. That it is completely certain that the apostles of Christ, and the first teachers of Christianity, asserted the fact. And this would have been certain, if the four Gospels had beer lost, or never written. Every piece of Scripture recognises the resurrection. Every epis. tle of every apostle, every author contemporary with the apostles, of the age immediately Thirdly, it proves that Luke, or whoever was the author of the Acts of the Apostles (for the argument does not depend upon the name of the author, though I know no reason for questioning it,) was well acquainted with Saint Paul's history; and that he probably was, what he professes himself to be, a companion of Saint Paul's travels; which, if true, establishes, in a considerable degree, the credit even of his Gospel, because it shows, that the writer, from his time, situation, and connections, possessed opportunities of informing himself truly concerning the transactions which he relates. I succeeding the apostles, every writing from have little difficulty in applying to the Gospel of Saint Luke what is proved concerning the Acts of the Apostles, considering them as two parts of the same history; for, though there are instances of second parts being forgeries, I know none where the second part is genuine, and the first not so. that age to the present, genuine or spurious, on the side of Christianity or against it, concur in representing the resurrection of Christ as an article of his history, received without doubt or disagreement by all who called themselves Christians, as alleged from the begin ning by the propagators of the institution, and I will only observe, as a sequel of the argu- alleged as the centre of their testimony. Noment, though not noticed in my work, the re-thing, I apprehend, which a man does not markable similitude between the style of Saint | himself see or hear, can be more certain to hiru Rom. xv. 18, 19. 2 Cor. xii. 12. Ch. ver. 1-3 than this point. I do not mean, that nothing | loaded with great improbabilities, such as the can be more certain, than that Christ rose situation of the disciples, their fears for their from the dead; but that nothing can be more own safety at the time, the unlikelihood of certain, than that his apostles, and the first their expecting to succeed, the difficulty of acteachers of Christianity, gave out that he did tual success, and the inevitable consequence 80. In the other pa. s of the Gospel narra- of detection and failure, was, nevertheless, the tive, a question may be made, whether the most credible account that could be given of things related of Christ be the very things the matter. But it proceeds entirely upon the which the apostles and first teachers of the supposition of fraud, as all the old objections religion delivered concerning him? And this did. What account can be given of the body, question depends a good deal upon the evi-upon the supposition of enthusiasm? It is dence we possess of the genuineness, or ra- impossible our Lord's followers could believe ther, perhaps, of the antiquity, credit, and re- that he was risen from the dead, if his corpse ception of the books. On the subject of the was lying before them. No enthusiasm ever resurrection, no such discussion is necessary, reached to such a pitch of extravagancy as that: because no such doubt can be entertained. The a spirit may be an illusion; a body is a real only points which can enter into our conside-thing, an object of sense, in which there can ration are, whether the apostles knowingly be no mistake. All accounts of spectres leave published a falsehood, or whether they were the body in the grave. And, although the body themselves deceived; whether either of these of Christ might be removed by fraud, and for suppositions be possible The first, I think, the purposes of fraud, yet without any such is pretty generally given up. The nature of intention, and by sincere but deluded men the undertaking, and of the men; the extreme (which is the representation of the apostolic unlikelihood that such men should engage in character we are now examining,) no such atsuch a measure as a scheme; their personal tempt could be made. The presence and the toils, and dangers, and sufferings, in the cause; absence of the dead body, are alike inconsis their appropriation of their whole time to the tent with the hypothesis of enthusiasm ; for, if object; the warm and seemingly unaffected present, it must have cured their enthusiasm zeal and earnestness with which they profess at once; if absent, fraud, not enthusiasm, must their sincerity; exempt their memory from have carried it away. the suspicion of imposture. The solution more deserving of notice, is that which would resolve the conduct of the apostles into enthusiasm; which would class the evidence of Christ's resurrection with the numerous stories that are extant of the apparitions of dead There are circumstances in the narrative, as it is preserved in our histories, which destroy this comparison entirely. It was not one person, but many, who saw him; they saw him not only separately but together, not only by night but by day, not at a distance but near, not once but several times; they not only saw him, but touched him, conversed with him, ate with him, examined his person to satisfy their doubts. These particulars are decisive but they stand, I do admit, upon the credit of our records. I would answer, therefore, the insinuation of enthusiasm, by a circumstance which arises out of the nature of the thing; and the reality of which must be confessed by all who allow, what I believe is not denied, that the resurrection of Christ, whether true or false, was asserted by his disciples from the beginning; and that circum-thority as to this point, even by those who do not admistance is, the non-production of the dead body. It is related in the history, what indeed the story of the resurrection necessarily implies, that the corpse was missing out of the sepulchre it is related also in the history, that the Jews reported that the followers of Christ had stolen it away. And this account, though men. "And this saying," Saint Matthew writes, "is commonly reported amongst the Jews until this day," (chap. xxvii. 15.) The evangelist may be thought good au But further, if we admit, upon the concur rent testimony of all the histories, so much of the account as states that the religion of Jesus was set up at Jerusalem, and set up with asserting, in the very place in which he had been buried, and a few days after he had been buried, his resurrection out of the grave. it is evident that, if his body could have been found, the Jews would have produced it, as the shortest and completest answer possible to the whole story. The attempt of the apostles could not have survived this refutation a moment. If we also admit, upon the authority of Saint Matthew, that the Jews were adver tised of the expectation of Christ's followers, and that they had taken due precaution in consequence of this notice, and that the body was in marked and public custody, the observation receives more force still. For, notwithstanding their precaution, and although thus prepared and forewarned; when the story of the resurrection of Christ came forth, as it immediately did; when it was publicly asserted by his evidence in every other point: and this point is suffi Men in their circumstances would not have made such "Especially at the full moon, the city full of peo ple, many probably passing the whole night, as Jesus and his disciples had done, in the open air, the sepulchre sc near the city as to be now inclosed within the walls" Priestley on the Resurr. p. 2k CHAPTER IX. The Propagation of Christianity. " his disciples, and made the ground and basis mer conviction, and by virtue of what they had of their preaching in his name, and collecting heard and seen and known of Christ's history, followers to his religion, the Jews had not the they publicly became members of it. body to produce; but were obliged to meet the We read in the fourth chapter of the Acts, testimony of the apostles by an answer, not that, soon after this, "the number of the men,' containing indeed any impossibility in itself, i. e. the society openly professing their belief but absolutely inconsistent with the supposi- in Christ," was about five thousand." So tion of their integrity; that is, in other words, that here is an increase of two thousand withinconsistent with the supposition which would in a very short time. And it is probable that resolve their conduct into enthusiasm. there were many, both now and afterwards, who, although they believed in Christ, did not think it necessary to join themselves to the society; or who waited to see what was likely to become of it. Gamaliel, whose advice to the Jewish council is recorded Acts v. 34. appears to have been of this description; perIn this argument, the first consideration is haps Nicodemus, and perhaps also Joseph of the fact; in what degree, within what time, Arimathea. This class of men, their characand to what extent, Christianity actually was ter and their rank, are likewise pointed out by propagated. Saint John, in the twelfth chapter of his GosThe accounts of the matter, which can be pel: "Nevertheless, among the chief rulers collected from our books, are as follow: A few also many believed on him: but because of the days after Christ's dissappearance out of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they world, we find an assembly of disciples at Je-should be put out of the synagogue, for they rusalem, to the number of "about one hun. loved the praise of men more than the praise dred and twenty;" which hundred and twen- of God." Persons such as these, might admit ty were, probably, a little association of believ- the miracles of Christ, without being immediers, met together, not merely as believers in ately convinced that they were under obligaChrist, but as personally connected with the tion to make a public profession of Christianiapostles and with one another. Whateverity, at the risk of all that was dear to them in was the number of believers then in Jerusalem, life, and even of life itself.† we have no reason to be surprised that so small Christianity, however, proceeded to increase a company should assemble: for there is no in Jerusalem by a progress equally rapid with proof, that the followers of Christ were yet its first success; for, in the next chapter of formed into a society; that the society was our history, we read that "believers were the reduced into any order; that it was at this more added to the Lord, multitudes both of time even understood that a new religion (in men and women." And this enlargement of the sense which that term conveys to us) was the new society appears in the first verse of to be set up in the world, or how the profes- the succeeding chapter, wherein we are told, sors of that religion were to be distinguished that, "when the number of the disciples was from the rest of mankind. The death of Christ multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the had left, we may suppose, the generality of Grecians against the Hebrews, because their his disciples in great doubt, both as to what widows were neglected;"§ and, afterwards in they were to do, and concerning what was the same chapter, it is declared expressly, that, "the number of the disciples multiplied This meeting was holden, as we have al- in Jerusalem greatly, and that a great comready said, a few days after Christ's ascen-pany of the priests were obedient to the faith.” sion: for, ten days after that event was the to follow. * Verse 4. day of Pentecost, when as our history relates,+ "Beside those who professed, and those who rejectupon a signal display of divine agency attend-ed and opposed Christianity; there were, in all probabi ing the persons of the apostles, there were add-lity, multitudes between both, neither perfect Christied to the society about three thousand souls." ans, nor yet unbelievers. They had a favourable opi+nion of the Gospel, but worldly considerations made them But here, it is not, I think, to be taken, that unwilling to own it. There were many circumstances these three thousand were all converted by which inclined them to think that Christianity was a divine revelation, but there were many inconveniences this single miracle; but rather that many, who which attended the open profession of it: and they could before were believers in Christ, became now not find in themselves courage enough to bear them to professors of Christianity; that is to say, when disoblige their friends and family, to ruin their fortunes, to lose their reputation, their liberty, and their life, for they found that a religion was to be establish- the sake of the new religion. Therefore they were will ed, a society formed and set up in the name of ing to hope, that if they endeavoured to observe the Christ, governed by his laws, avowing their be-ed as the principal part, the sum and substance, of Religreat principles of morality, which Christ had representlief in his mission, united amongst themselves,gion; if they thought honourably of the Gospel; if they and separated from the rest of the world, by the services that they could safely perform; they were offered no injury to the Christians; if they did them aft visible distinctions; in pursuance of their for-willing to hope that God would accept this, and that He would excuse and forgive the rest." Jortin's Dis. on the Christ. Rel. p. 91. ed. 4. Acts i. 15. + Ib. ii. 1. tib. ii. 41. Acts v. 14. lb. vi. I This I call the first period in the propaga- | Gentiles of Cesarea. A year after this, a great tion of Christianity. It commences with the multitude of Gentiles were converted at An. ascension of Christ, and extends, as may be tioch in Syria. The expressions employed by collected from incidental notes of time, to the historian are these:-"A great number something more than one year after that believed, and turned to the Lord;""much event. During which term, the preaching of people was added unto the Lord;" the apostles Christianity, so far as our documents inform Barnabas and Paul taught much people."* us, was confined to the single city of Jerusa lem. Upon Herod's death, which happened in the next year, it is observed, that "the word of And how did it succeed there? The first God grew and multiplied." Three years assembly which we meet with of Christ's dis- from this time, upon the preaching of Paul at ciples, and that a few days after his removal Iconium, the metropolis of Lycaonia," a great from the world, consisted of "one hundred multitude both of Jews and Greeks believed:"§ and twenty." About a week after this, "three and afterwards, in the course of this very prothousand were added in one day;" and the gress, he is represented as "making many dis number of Christians, publicly baptized, and sciples" at Derbe, a principal city in the same publicly associating together, was very soon district Three years after this, which brings increased to "five thousand." "Multitudes us to sixteen after the ascension, the apostles both of men and women continued to be add- wrote a public letter from Jerusalem to the ed;""disciples multiplied greatly," and "many Gentile converts in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, of the Jewish priesthood, as well as others, became obedient to the faith ;" and this within a space of less than two years from the commencement of the institution. with which letter Paul travelled through these countries, and found the churches" established in the faith, and increasing in number daily.”¶ From Asia, the apostle proceeded into Greece, By reason of a persecution raised against the where, soon after his arrival in Macedonia, church at Jerusalem, the converts were driven we find him at Thessalonica; in which city, from that city, and dispersed throughout the" some of the Jews believed, and of the devout regions of Judea and Samaria.+ Wherever Greeks a great multitude." We meet alse they came, they brought their religion with here with an accidental hint of the general them: for, our historian informs us, that progress of the Christian mission, in the ex、 "they that were scattered abroad, went every clamation of the tumultuous Jews of Thessa where preaching the word." The effect of lonica, "that they, who had turned the world this preaching comes afterwards to be noticed, upside down, were come thither also."†† At where the historian is led, in the course of his Berea, the next city at which Saint Paul ar. narrative, to observe, that then (i. e. about three rives, the historian, who was present, informs years posterior to this)§" the churches had us that "many of the Jews believed." The rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Sa- next year and a half of Saint Paul's ministry maria, and were edified, and walking in the was spent at Corinth. Of his success in that fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the city, we receive the following intimations; Holy Ghost, were multiplied." This was the" that many of the Corinthians believed and work of the second period, which comprises were baptized ;" and "that it was revealed to about four years. the apostle by Christ, that he had much people Hitherto the preaching of the Gospel had in that city."§§ Within less than a year after been confined to Jews, to Jewish proselytes, his departure from Corinth, and twenty-five||||| and to Samaritans. And I cannot forbear from years after the ascension, Saint Paul fixed his setting down in this place, an observation of station at Ephesus, for the space of two years¶¶ Mr. Bryant, which appears to me to be perfectly and something more. The effect of his miwell founded ;-" the Jews still remain: but nistry in that city and neighbourhood drew how seldom is it that we can make a single pro- from the historian a reflection, how " mightily selyte! There is reason to think, that there grew the word of God and prevailed."(a) And were more converted by the apostles in one at the conclusion of this period, we find Deday, than have since been won over in the last metrius at the head of a party, who were thousand years."|| 66 alarmed by the progress of the religion, comIt was not yet known to the apostles, that plaining, that not only at Ephesus, but also they were at liberty to propose the religion to throughout all Asia (i. e. the province of Lydia, mankind at large. That "mystery," as Saint and the country adjoining to Ephesus,) this Paul calls it, and as it then was, was reveal- Paul hath persuaded and turned away much ed to Peter by an especial miracle. It appears people."(b) Beside these accounts, there occurs, to have been about seven years after Christ's incidentally, mention of converts at Rome, ascension, that the Gospel was preached to the * Acts xi. 21. 24. 26. ↑ Benson, book ii. p. 289. Acts xiv. 1. Benson's History of Christ, book iii. p. 50. Acts xvi. 5. tt Acts xvii. 12. **Acts xvii. 4. tt Acts xvii. 6 11 Acts xix. 10 (b) Acts xix. 4 Benson, book iii. p. 160. (a) Acts, xix. 20. |