Lord of the invisible world. The last chapter opens with His victory over the grave, commencing in His Resurrection, and ending with His Ascension, to sit down, a Priest upon His throne, on the right hand of the Majesty on high.

Having decided upon a Harmony, the result may be exhibited either in columns, or in an unbroken narrative. The former is calculated for reference, the latter for perusal. In the former the student judges for himself, in the latter he may be thought to be too much under the influence of the compiler. Tatian, the first who arranged one, called his work Monotessaron, one narrative collected out of the four Evangelists, and Diatessaron, or a narrative according to the four. His work is lost; but the latter name has been revived by Dr. White, who has thrown Archbishop Newcome's Harmony into this form, and follows him with very few deviations except in the narration of the Resurrection, in which he prefers West's scheme, as modified by Townson. I have followed this arrangement throughout, though I may occasionally prefer others; but I consider the precise order, if attainable, as less important, than the bringing together all the particulars of each transaction.

SECTION III.

On the genuineness, credibility, and inspiration of the Gospels.

We have shown from Irenæus, (iii. 1.) that in his time the Gospels were ascribed to their respective authors; and he lived little more than a century after their publication, and had learnt Christianity from those who had been taught by the last of the Apostles. In the passage preceding the one already quoted, he says, “We have not received the knowledge of the way of our salvation from any others than those by whom the Gospel has been brought to us, which Gospel they first preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, committed to writing, that it might be for the time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith. For after that our Lord rose from the dead, and the Apostles were endowed from above with the power of the Holy Ghost, and received a perfect knowledge of all things, they went forth to all the ends of the earth, declaring to men the blessing of heavenly peace, having all of them, and every one alike, the Gospel of God." These Gospels, or good tidings, as contained in the works of the four Evangelists, appear to have been read in the Christian assemblies during divine service as soon as they were published. Such at least we know was the custom in the time of Justin Martyr, as we learn from his first Apology for Christianity, presented to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, A. D. 140; and the testimony of Tertullian for Africa, and of Origen for Egypt and Palestine, in the following century, proves, that this was not a local custom, but the universal practice of Christian congregations. The fact then of the existence and reception of the four Gospels from the beginning cannot be disputed.

Some, however, may say, that they have perished, and that these we now read are not genuine. To such objectors, if

such there be, I would say with Mr. Lancaster", "Suppose any man were at this day to try to pass off a counterfeit book as the work of St. Paul, or St. John, what would be his success? And can we possibly imagine any time whatever in which the task would not have been as much impossible as now? Or, to use a more familiar example, suppose any man should forge an Act of Parliament, and attempt to pass it off as having been enacted by the Legislature: how many, think you, would submit to the imposture, and receive his forgery as the authentic law of the land? especially if his pretended law required from the subject any painful duties to perform, or considerable sacrifice of his interest or property. And does not reason assure us, that it would be an utter impossibility thus to forge the writings of the Evangelists and Apostles, since these require men to die to the world, to renounce its sinful lusts and profits, and to seek their happiness in an invisible and future kingdom?". . . . "Let it be remembered, that the doctrines of the New Testament profess to be written or attested by men endued with the power of miracles and prophecy, and that they profess at the same time to be written for the instruction, in the first instance, of contemporaries. How then could they be first brought to light in a later age, or by persons who were not known to possess those powers which they alleged in proof of their authority ↳ ?” . . . . The task of imposing a literary forgery upon the world has been almost invariably found to baffle the utmost circumspection and ingenuity, for the slightest failure in any particular will lay open the fraud; but the hazard is greatly increased when the work is of any length, especially, says Lardner, if it be historical, and be concerned with characters and customs. The New Testament would present peculiar difficulties, from the style and language, which are neither those of the Classics nor the Fathers, and are what might be expected from the Apostles and Evangelists, and no others; b Page 64.

a

Bampton Lectures, page 63.

and the precepts and the religious spirit that pervades the Epistles and Gospels are such as no impostor would either be desirous or capable of giving. Our statement is not a mere supposition, but is confirmed by the fact; for the apocryphal writings supply the attempt and the failure. The universal reception of the same Canon for so many ages is in itself evidence sufficient that our Scriptures are, as they profess to be, the genuine productions of the authorized teachers of our faith. "Where do you find a church, or a sect, which rejects any of the books which we receive, or receives any book which we do not receive?" However much they may vary in doctrine or discipline, "the dispute is not about the authority, but the interpretation, of the books." This concurrence is remarkable and of great weight, especially as it seems to have been the result of private and free inquiry; for we have no knowledge of any interference of authority in the question before the Council of Laodicæa, A.D. 363; and this decree did not regulate but declare the public judgment already formed. That Council did no more than declare, that private psalms ought not to be read in the Church, nor any books not canonical; and then follows a catalogue of such, both of the Old and the New Testament. There was no need of a synod of grammarians, says Le Clerc, to declare magisterially what are the works of Cicero or Virgil; and we no where read of a council of the Apostles, or of any assembly of the governors of Christian Churches, convened to determine by their authority that such a number of Gospels should be received; and in this he only repeats the observation of Augustine. We know the writings of the Apostles as we know the works of Plato, Aristotle, and others, forasmuch as they have the testimony of contemporaries, and of those who have lived in succeeding ages. And we have the additional satisfaction of knowing, that this concurrence was the result c Page 65.

not of an easy acquiescence, but of diligent enquiry, as shown both by the rejection of apocryphal books, and the doubt entertained for a season concerning a few canonical ones, which ended in their universal reception. The prevalence of this doubt and the silence of antiquity disprove the opinion, that the Canon of the New Testament had been settled by St. John; but the fact that he had read the three earlier Gospels, and added his own as a supplement, gives his infallible authority to that portion of it with which we are at present concerned.

The genuineness of the Gospels (and the same may be affirmed of all the books of the New Testament) is supported by the substantial sameness of the text in all versions. Take those of the Roman Catholics, in English, French, Italian, or in any other language, and you will find that they are all derived from what is called the Vulgate, that is, the Latin translation of St. Jerome in the fifth century. Take our own, and you will perceive it to be nearly the same; not precisely, because it is translated from the original Greek; and if you ask where that is to be found, we say, in the many manuscripts of it still extant, some of which may be as old as the fourth century. These books having always been regarded as authority, from which there was no appeal, they were quoted from the beginning, as now, both in the controversial and in the explanatory writings of Christian divines; and some had occasion, or inclination, to do this at greater length than others. Dr. Mill says of Origen, that if we had all his works remaining, we should have before us almost the whole text of the Bible; and in those of Tertullian, his contemporary, says Lardner, there are more and larger quotations of the small volume of the New Testament, than of all the works of Cicero, by writers of all characters for several ages. Paley justly remarks, that to pursue the detail of proofs throughout, would be to transcribe a great part of