At this distance of time, the account as we have it is
perhaps more credible than it would have been the other way; because
this manifestation of the historians' candour is of more advantage to
their testimony than the difference in the circumstances of the account
would have been to the nature of the evidence. But this is an effect
which the evangelists would not foresee: and I think that it was by no
means the case at the time when the books were composed.
Mr. Gibbon has argued for the genuineness of the Koran, from the
confessions which it contains, to the apparent disadvantage of the
Mahometan cause. (Vol. ix. c. 50, note 96.) The same defence vindicates
the genuineness of our Gospels, and without prejudice to the cause at
all.
There are some other instances in which the evangelists honestly relate
what they must have perceived would make against them.
Of this kind is John the Baptist's message preserved by Saint Matthew
(xi. 2) and Saint Luke (vii. 18): "Now when John had heard in the prison
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him,
Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" To confess, still
more to state, that John the Baptist had his doubts concerning the
character of Jesus, could not but afford a handle to cavil and
objection.
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