CHAPTER III.
THE CANDOUR OF THE WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.
I make this candour to consist in their putting down many passages, and
noticing many circumstances, which no writer whatever was likely to have
forged; and which no writer would have chosen to appear in his book who
had been careful to present the story in the most unexceptionable form,
or who had thought himself at liberty to carve and mould the particulars
of that story according to his choice, or according to his judgment of
the effect.
A strong and well-known example of the fairness of the evangelists
offers itself in their account of Christ's resurrection, namely, in
their unanimously stating that after he was risen he appeared to his
disciples alone. I do not mean that they have used the exclusive word
alone; but that all the instances which they have recorded of his
appearance are instances of appearance to his disciples; that their
reasonings upon it, and allusions to it, are confined to this
supposition; and that by one of them Peter is made to say, "Him God
raised up the third day, and showed him openly, not to all the people,
but to witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat and drink
with him after he rose from the dead.
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