Therefore, allowing that this
writer also, in some instances, borrowed from the Gospel which we call
Matthew's and once more allowing for the sake of stating the argument,
that that Gospel was not the production of the author to whom we
ascribe it; yet still we have in St. Luke's Gospel a history given by a
writer immediately connected with the transaction with the witnesses of
it with the persons engaged in it, and composed from materials which
that person, thus situated, deemed to be safe source of intelligence; in
other words, whatever supposition be made concerning any or all the
other Gospels, if Saint Luke's Gospel be genuine, we have in it a
credible evidence of the point which we maintain. The Gospel according
to Saint John appears to be, and is on all hands allowed to be, an
independent testimony, strictly and properly so called. Notwithstanding
therefore, any connexion or supposed connexion, between one of the
Gospels, I again repeat what I before said, that if any one of the four
be genuine, we have, in that one, strong reason, from the character and
situation of the writer, to believe that we possess the accounts which
the original emissaries of the religion delivered.
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