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    briefly reply there are no facts or doctrines believed by ~ Unitarian Christians that can be invalidated by any mere inaccuracy in the relation of either or any of the Evangelists , because the facts and doctrines they believe are

    established by an accumulation of evidence * In the first place , Chri s tianity would stand upon strong pi esumjjti've evidence from the present state of Europe in connexion with profane history , were there no Christian scriptures extant ; in the next place I trust I sha . l be able to . shew , there are some of those bonks sufficient

    ly authentic for our purpose , were it possible that all the others could be proved of doubtful authority or even forgeries . It has been forcibly observed by Paley , tc that a Jewish peasant has changed the religion of the world . " In examining by what instrumentality this great change was effected , he finds that one Paul of Tarsus is said to have been one of the

    finst and most distinguished agents , that there are several letters written by him to the several churches he had planted in the Lesser Asia , Macedonia , Achaia , now preserved , in which the great facts of the Christian revelation are clearlystated or referred to in some other docu

    merit , In examining these letters in his Horse Paulinse , he has proceed their authenticity by a train of sound criticism , he has made each to prove the genuineness of the others and all to prove the truth of another document received by Christians , entitled the Acts of the Apostles , by such a variety of undesigned coincidences , that if this evidence ,

    added to the general historical argument be not satisfactory , I should conclude there can be obtained no satisfactory proof for any historical fact . It follows if thi * memoir be true , that the gdspel by l , uke must be ( in the main ) true also , because it was written by the same person , and is in fact only the former part of the same history , I do not mean to assei t that the books to which I have here

    referred , are free from all errors or such additions and interpolations as all other ancient books were liable to , but I do vontend that all the principal facts , believed by us as Unitarian Christians , are sufficiently authenticated , and if

    unaccompanied by any other evidence I should not deem it irrational to believe them . It i $ not necessary for my purpose to notice any of the other books against which your correspondent may object ; "Were thcie no existing pro » f of the au- *

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    thenticity of any one of them , the books to which I have referred , would afford sufficient ground for a rational belief in the Christian revelation . But Unitarians as well as otrvers have another additional species of evidence tf

    no small importance , I mean the internal ; in the above epistles and history ^ we find inculcated in every page some branch of a system of the purest morality , calculated to make all who practice it better and happier * I trust this will not be brought to prove that Unitarians have therefore no claim to the title of '

    " Rational Christians . " But your correspondent objects , " that should these historical records be even as good as those of JLivy or Tacitus it would not avail us , because the divine records are of vital consequence to us and if given by a benevolent God foi *

    our essential benefit , they must be attended by very different evidence . " Th i * argument I acknowledge to have great weight , arid if unanswerable would prove more in his favour than all the others he has produced . —But thanks be to God in the scheme of the Christian revelation , he has vouchsafed to afford us

    superhuman evidence in its support , and or such a species as your correspondent seems to demand , and this will be Found

    in coiitpleted prophecy , The Christian dispensation was clearly predicted in th ^ Jewish s : ripture 9 . Even Moses foretold that a prophet like unto himself would be raised up , and it appears from Acts iv . 4 . that when Peter , preaching to the Jews referred to this passage , although being in Jerusalem , where they must have heard of , if not seen the

    miracles wrought by Jesus , it was on this evidence of completed prophecy that so great a multitude were convert- * cd to Christianity . Many of the Jewish and Christian prophets have also predicted the rise , progress , and final consummation of the whole Christian dispen- * sation ; and this being beyond the reach of human sagacity or contrivance , evi * dently proves its divine source ,

    becoming to every serious and attentive student of the prophecies , the same species of evidence in every age that miracles were to the eye-witne 8 $ es * in the days of the apostles , and with this additional important cooperation that it strength ens with the lapse of time , as hb ^ orjfe displays the accomplishment of a contii . ual series of fresh events , ' and to u # of the pret » cot d&y , ^ bcre i » from every

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    An Unitarian ' s Answery to the Churchrmtr ? s Reply . 661

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    voi . m . 4 r

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1808, page 661, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2399/page/25/