CONTENTS.

Preparatory Considerations.—Of the antecedent Credibility of

Miracles

PART I.

OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND.

WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EVIDENCE ALLEGED

FOR OTHER MIRACLES.

Proposition stated

PROPOSITION I.

That there is satisfactory Evidence, that many, professing to be

original Witnesses of the Christian Miracles, passed their

Lives in Labours, Dangers, and Sufferings, voluntarily under-

gone in attestation of the Accounts which they delivered,

and solely in consequence of their Belief of those Accounts;

and that they also submitted, from the same Motives, to new

Rules of Conduct

CHAPTER I.

Evidence of the Sufferings of the first Propagators of Christian-
ity, from the Nature of the Case

CHAPTER II.

Evidence of the Sufferings of the first Propagators of Christian-

ity, from Profane Testimony

CHAPTER III.

Indirect Evidence of the Sufferings of the first Propagators of

Christianity, from the Scriptures and other ancient Christian

Writings

CHAPTER IV.

Direct Evidence of the same

Page 9

15

16

ib.

25

30

34

CHAPTER V.

46

Observations upon the preceding Evidence

CHAPTER VI.

That the Story, for which the first Propagators of Christianity

suffered, was miraculous

CHAPTER VII.

That it was, in the main, the Story which we have now proved

by indirect Considerations

50

54

CHAPTER VIII.

The same proved from the Authority of our Historical Scrip-

tures

65

CHAPTER IX.

Of the Authenticity of the Historical Scriptures, in eleven

Sections

SECT. I. Quotations of the Historical Scriptures by ancient

Christian Writers

SECT. II.

Of the peculiar Respect with which they were

quoted

SECT. III. The Scriptures were in very early Times collected

into a distinct Volume

SECT. IV. And distinguished by appropriate Names and Titles

of Respect

108

SECT. V.

Were publicly read and expounded in the religious

Assemblies of the early Christians

110

the Scriptures

116

SECT. VI. Commentaries, &c. were anciently written upon

SECT. VII. They were received by ancient Christians of dif-

ferent Sects and Persuasions

SECT. VIII. The four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thir-

teen Epistles of Saint Paul, the First Epistle of

John, and the First of Peter, were received with-

out Doubt by those who doubted concerning the

other Books of our present Canon

SECT. IX. Our present Gospels were considered by the Ad-

versaries of Christianity, as containing the Ac-

counts upon which the Religion was founded

Formal Catalogues of Authentic Scriptures were

published, in all which our present Gospels were

included

SECT. X.

122

126

131

SECT. XI. The above Propositions cannot be predicated of

those Books which are commonly called Apocry-

phal Books of the New Testament

Recapitulation

CHAPTER X.

OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, AND

WHEREIN IT IS DISTINGUISHED FROM THE EVIDENCE AL-

LEGED FOR OTHER MIRACLES

133

137

141

PROPOSITION II.

CHAPTER I.

That there is NOT satisfactory Evidence, that Persons pretend-

ing to be original Witnesses of any other similar Miracles,

have acted in the same Manner, in Attestation of the Ac-

counts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of

their Belief of the Truth of those Accounts

CHAPTER II.

Consideration of some specific Instances

PART II.

OF THE AUXILIARY EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

ib.

157

Conformity of the Facts occasionally mentioned or referred to

in Scripture, with the State of Things in those Times, as rep-

resented by foreign and independent Accounts

216

SECT. II. Reflections upon the preceding Account

SECT. III. Of the Success of Mahometanism

261

267

That the Christian Miracles are not recited, or appealed to, by

early Christian Writers themselves, so fully or frequently as

might have been expected

300

CHAPTER VI.

Want of Universality in the Knowledge and Reception of

Christianity, and of greater Clearness in the Evidence

307

314

320

Reasons for Contentment, addressed to the Laboring Part of

the British Public

331

:

A Defence of the Considerations on the Propriety of requiring

a Subscription to Articles of Faith, in Reply to a late An-

swer from the Clarendon Press

343

PREPARATORY

1

CONSIDERATIONS.

I DEEM it unnecessary to prove that mankind stood in need of a revelation, because I have met with no serious person who thinks that even under the Christian revelation we have too much light, or any degree of assurance which is superfluous. I desire moreover, that, in judging of Christianity, it may be remembered, that the question lies between this religion and none: for, if the Christian religion be not credible, no one, with whom we have to do, will support the pretensions of any other. Suppose, then, the world we live in to have had a Creator; suppose it to appear, from the predominant aim and tendency of the provisions and contrivances observable in the universe, that the Deity, when he formed it, consulted for the happiness of his sensitive creation; suppose the disposition which dictated this council to continue; suppose a part of the creation to have received faculties from their Maker, by which they are capable of rendering a moral obedience to his will, and of voluntarily pursuing any end for which he has designed them; suppose the Creator to intend for these his rational and accountable agents, a second state of existence, in which their situation will be regulated by their behaviour in the first state, by which supposition (and by no other) the objection to the divine government in not putting a difference between the good and the bad, and the inconsistency of this confusion with the care and benevolence discoverable in the works of the Deity is done away; suppose it to be of the utmost importance to the subjects of