latter part of the same history, the author, by using in various places
the first person plural, declares himself to have been a contemporary of
all, and a companion of one, of the original preachers of the religion.





CHAPTER IX.

There is satisfactory evidence that many, professing to be original
witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed their lives in labours,
dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone 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.

OF THE AUTHENTICITY OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Not forgetting, therefore, what credit is due to the evangelical
history, supposing even any one of the four Gospels to be genuine; what
credit is due to the Gospels, even supposing nothing to be known
concerning them but that they were written by early disciples of the
religion, and received with deference by early Christian churches; more
especially not forgetting what credit is due to the New Testament in its
capacity of cumulative evidence; we now proceed to state the proper and
distinct proofs, which show not only the general value of these records,
but their specific authority, and the high probability there is that
they actually came from the persons whose names they bear.