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Mr . Cogan ' s Summary qf the Evidences of Christianity . ( Concluded from p . 3 . ) BUT it may be objected , that , allowing the validity of the testimony , and admitting likewise the credibility of the facts , the
New-Testament history cannot be received b y the philosophical inquirer , since , ir the facts there recorded had really taken place , different consequences must have followed , and all Judea and the Roman empire must have been immediately converted to the Christian faith . This
objection it seems , does not deny that the truth of the gospel-history is a sufficient cause of the revolution which was effected by Christianity , but simply affirms , that the progress of this revolution must have been more rapid had the facts been real . But as the
sufficiency of the cause to which the Christian ascribes the origin and diffusion of Christianity is by the very objection acknowledged , those reasonings must be very clear and forcible which will oblige him to reject it . But that the objection is by no means
decisive will appear from the following observations . Few comparatively could have been eye-witnesses of the miracles in question . Prejudices of the strongest kind against Christianity existed among both Jews and Gentiles . Now that these prejudices will not
account for the slow and partial progress of Christianity , allowing it to have been as slow and as partial as any unbeliever will maintain it to have been , can never be proved , unless it can be demonstrated that no prejudice can resist the credible report of miracles . But on what data this
demonstration is to proceed , it will be difficult to say . The mind is certainly indisposed to receive any fact in proportion as it is averse to the conclusion which is to be admitted upon the belief
of the fact ; and with certain prejudices , and in certain circumstances , it is probable that no evidence of testimony would be attended to . Paine , I think , somewhere says , that he would not have believed the resurrection of
Jesus without ocular and manual demonstration ; and yet he too urges the unbelief of the Jews , as a proof that the event never took place . It may here be farther observed , that they
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who were not converted to Christianity in the earlier ages of the Christian history , must have remained unbelievers , either because their prejudices did not allow them to pay any proper attention to the subject , or because they knew the falsehood of the
pretended miracles on which Christianity depends . If the latter alternative be adopted , how comes it to pass that it should not appear upon the slightest evidence , that the truth of these miracles had ever been disproved ? If these observations do not remove the
objection , it may be asked , How can the belief of those who did receive Christianity be accounted for , upon supposition that the facts on which it professes to depend , are false ? It may perhaps be replied , that this fact may be explained by the natural
credulity of the human mind , and that love of the marvellous , which has shewn itself in every age and nation . But will not the force of prejudice , equally natural to the human mind , just as well account for the non-conversion of the remainder who were not
converted ? I now proceed to the consideration of the fourth method by which the evidences of the Christian religion may be opposed ; by proving that the truth of the facts contained in the gospelhistory , was not the real cause of the existence and progress of Christianity . And here it must be observed , that if
the evidence in favour of this history has not been already invalidated , the contrary evidence must be very clear and convincing before it can with justice be rejected . Nothing-, in fact , will avail but evidence , which shall be clearer and more authentic than can
be produced in favour of the history , the credit of which is to be subverted . When the Christian is asked , how the great revolution which was effected by Christianity is to be accounted for > he immediately rej > lie 8 , by the evidence of the facts on which it professes to rest ; and he produces a history of
these facts , which he maintains to be attended with all the requisite marks of genuineness and truth ; and if the unbeliever , without previously subverting the credit of this history , attempts to prove its falsehood , by unfolding the origin and explaining the progress of Christianity , it is ob-
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84 Mr . Cogan ' s Summary of the Evidences of Christianity *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1821, page 84, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2497/page/20/
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