view can be acquired from heathen writers. It is in our own books that
the detail and interior of the transaction must be sought for. And this
is nothing different from what might be expected. Who would write a
history of Christianity, but a Christian? Who was likely to record the
travels, sufferings, labours, or successes of the apostles, but one of
their own number, or of their followers? Now these books come up in
their accounts to the full extent of the proposition which we maintain.
We have four histories of Jesus Christ. We have a history taking up the
narrative from his death, and carrying on an account of the propagation
of the religion, and of some of the most eminent persons engaged in it,
for a space of nearly thirty years. We have, what some may think still
more original, a collection of letters, written by certain principal
agents in the business upon the business, and in the midst of their
concern and connection with it. And we have these writings severally
attesting the point which we contend for, viz. the sufferings of the
witnesses of the history, and attesting it in every variety of form in
which it can be conceived to appear: directly and indirectly, expressly
and incidentally, by assertion, recital, and allusion, by narratives of
facts, and by arguments and discourses built upon these facts, either
referring to them, or necessarily presupposing them.

I remark this variety, because, in examining ancient records, or indeed
any species of testimony, it is, in my opinion, of the greatest
importance to attend to the information or grounds of argument which are
casually and undesignedly disclosed; forasmuch as this species of proof
is, of all others, the least liable to be corrupted by fraud or
misrepresentation.

I may be allowed therefore, in the inquiry which is now before us, to
suggest some conclusions of this sort, as preparatory to more direct