Christianity hath travelled through dark and
turbulent ages; nevertheless it came out of the cloud and the storm,
such, in substance, as it entered in. Many additions were made to the
primitive history, and these entitled to different degrees of credit;
many doctrinal errors also were from time to time grafted into the
public creed; but still the original story remained, and remained the
same. In all its principal parts, it has been fixed from the beginning.
Thirdly: The religious rites and usages that prevailed amongst the early
disciples of Christianity were such as belonged to, and sprung out of,
the narrative now in our hands; which accordancy shows, that it was the
narrative upon which these persons acted, and which they had received
from their teachers. Our account makes the Founder of the religion
direct that his disciples should be baptized: we know that the first
Christians were baptized, Our account makes him direct that they should
hold religious assemblies: we find that they did hold religious
assemblies. Our accounts make the apostles assemble upon a stated day of
the week: we find, and that from information perfectly independent of
our accounts, that the Christians of the first century did observe
stated days of assembling.
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