If it be so, the religion must be true. These men could not be
deceivers. By only not bearing testimony, they might have avoided all
these sufferings, and have lived quietly. Would men in such
circumstances pretend to have seen what they never saw; assert facts
which they had no knowledge of; go about lying to teach virtue; and,
though not only convinced of Christ's being an impostor, but having seen
the success of his imposture in his crucifixion, yet persist in carrying
it on; and so persist, as to bring upon themselves for nothing, and with
a full knowledge of the consequence, enmity and hatred, danger and
death?
=========================================
OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY.
PROPOSITION II.
CHAPTER I.
Our first proposition was, That there is satisfactory evidence that many
pretending to be original witnesses of the Christian miracles, passed
their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undertaken
and undergone in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and
solely in consequence of their belief of the truth of those accounts;
and that they also submitted, from the same motives, to new rules of
conduct.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262