148,
note a. Jottin, Dis., p. 218. Bishop Law's Life of Christ.) of instances
in which it is extremely probable that Christ spoke in allusion to some
object, or some occasion then before him, though the mention of the
occasion, or of the object, be omitted in the history. I only observe that
these instances are common to Saint John's Gospel with the other three.
I conclude this article by remarking, that nothing of this manner is
perceptible in the speeches recorded in the Acts, or in any other but
those which are attributed to Christ, and that, in truth, it was a very
unlikely manner for a forger or fabulist to attempt; and a manner very
difficult for any writer to execute, if he had to supply all the
materials, both the incidents and the observations upon them, out of his
own head. A forger or a fabulist would have made for Christ, discourses
exhorting to virtue and dissuading from vice in general terms. It would
never have entered into the thoughts of either, to have crowded together
such a number of allusions to time, place, and other little circumstances,
as occur, for instance, in the sermon on the mount, and which nothing but
the actual presence of the objects could have suggested (See Bishop Law's
Life of Christ).
Pages:
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394