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* See Peter's speech upon curing the cripple (Acts iii. 18), the council
of the apostles (xv.), Paul's discourse at Athens (xvii. 22), before
Agrippa (xxvi.). I notice these passages, both as fraught with good
sense and as free from the smallest tincture of enthusiasm.
_________
When we reflect that some of those from whom the books proceeded are
related to have themselves wrought miracles, to have been the subject of
miracles, or of supernatural assistance in propagating the religion, we
may perhaps be led to think that more credit, or a different kind of
credit, is due to these accounts, than what can be claimed by merely
human testimony. But this is an argument which cannot be addressed to
sceptics or unbelievers. A man must be a Christian before he can receive
it. The inspiration of the historical Scriptures, the nature, degree,
and extent of that inspiration, are questions undoubtedly of serious
discussion; but they are questions amongst Christians themselves, and
not between them and others. The doctrine itself is by no means
necessary to the belief of Christianity, which must, in the first
instance at least, depend upon the ordinary maxim of historical
credibility.
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