PART III.
A BRIEF CONSIDERATION OF SOME POPULAR OBJECTIONS.
CHAPTER I.
THE DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN THE SEVERAL GOSPELS.
I know not a more rash or unphilosophical conduct of the understanding,
than to reject the substance of a story by reason of some diversity in
the circumstances with which it is related. The usual character of human
testimony is substantial truth under circumstantial variety. This is
what the daily experience of courts of justice teaches. When accounts of
a transaction come from the mouths of different witnesses, it is seldom
that it is not possible to pick out apparent or real inconsistencies
between them. These inconsistencies are studiously displayed by an
adverse pleader, but oftentimes with little impression upon the minds of
the judges. On the contrary, a close and minute agreement induces the
suspicion of confederacy and fraud. When written histories touch upon
the same scenes of action; the comparison almost always affords ground
for a like reflection. Numerous, and sometimes important, variations
present themselves; not seldom, also, absolute and final contradictions;
yet neither one nor the other are deemed sufficient to shake the
credibility of the main fact.
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