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    recitals are scarcely to be admitted among the established points of 'history , unless confirmed by a coincidence ofauthorities ; " > IX . The bppugners of Herodotus , both in ancient and modern times , come next under consideration * Severahsuperficial objections by Voltaire

    are dissipated , and as much respect is shewn as is due to the unreasonable scepticism of the Persian lexicographer , Richardson , who would fain involve the Persian invasion in doubt by opposing the authority of Persian historians , who lived sixteen hundred years after the events in question , to the narratives of the Greek historians , describing the invasion of their own

    aountry ' in their own times . X . " Value and Use of Spontaneous Testimony ; Boundaries of Authentic History . ' * This chapter prepares the way for a particular examination of an important part of the Christian Evidence , viz . that relating to the Apostolic Epistles .

    • " The Epistles of Cicero and of Pliny are both of inestimable value m ascertaining' the public transactions of the times' * in which they lived : " It might be strongly recommended to those whose convictions have been embarrassed , or who , from inattention to the subject , entertain doubts of the truth of Christianity , to peruse the Apostolic Epistles with the single intention of carrying in their minds , as they read , the opposite suppositions that may be formed relative to the character of the writers , and the true nature of the events so often alluded to by them . "

    We may be allowed to refer , in this connexion , to the constant use of these means which Mr . Belsham has adopted in his elaborate Exposition of St . Paul ' s Epistles . We know of no work in the English language in which the argument is more satisfactorily followed out or more forcibly illustrated . Since this sentence was written we have perused the high encomium of Dr . Parr , as given in the recent work of Mr . Field .

    XL The specimen given of Historical Inferences , gathered from the Apostolical Epistles , may be deemed ingenious and interesting . The well-known letter of Pliny , addressed to the Emperor Trajan , relative to the Christians , is made the ground-work of this illustration . Full explanation is sought " for in vain from the incidental mention of the Christians by Tacitus . * But there exists a letter of instruction and encouragement , addressed by a leader of the sect , to the Christians of' Bithynia and the neighbouring provinces ,

    not more than forty years before the time when this correspondence passed between Trajan and Pliny , who had been appointed pro-preetor in that province . The two writers agree , not only as to the name of the sect , but to the fact , that this name was the common ground of accusation against them . Pliny mentions incidentally , among the things he had been told , " that the Christians were accustomed to meet . on a stated day , and to sing hymns to Christ as to a god . " We give this extract as our author accurately

    translates the words 01 the literary Roman . We know how commonly this heathen evidence is urged , but with singular infelicity , in favour of the prevalent idea of the Saviour's person ; and we are convinced that by the exercise of a small portion of that sound sense and rational discernment which our author has exhibited in this interesting-volume , he might . have unravelled the web in which the passage has been entangled . Who bujt a systematic theologian could have found in this passage an imUcafton of the " supreme regards of Christians to the Founder of Christianity" ? And if ¦ ¦•¦< - ¦• • ¦ * * * ' , ' *• ' * . I .. ¦ am i ' i Annul , xv . 44 .

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    320 Beview . ' ' —ltylws Historical Proof .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1828, page 320, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2560/page/32/