historicalgeogra00psal

Qjo
The Grounds of
the common Opinions of my Countrymen, and
my Guide anfwer'd them fo clearly, that I could
make no manner of reply : So that the firft
Obje£lion that feem'd to have any force was
this :
Objeff. I. How can I now be certain^ that what
the Evangelifts and Apoftles aflert is truth •, for
they might impofe upon us, and write things
which never were perform'd ?
Anfw. To this my Guide anfwered, i. That
he fuppos'd the divine Writers were able to tell
us the truth, and to give us a true and perfeft
Hiftory of the Life and Death of the bleCTed Jesus.
2. That they were very willing to do fo.
No Man can doubt that they were able to fpeak
the truth ^ for they did not write the Hiftory of
things which happened in Agespaft, and long before
they were born, or of what was done in remote
parts of the World ^ but the things they deliver
down to us they faw with their own Eyes, heard
with their own Ears, and felt with their own
Hands, ^c. as the Apoftle Sr. Job;2 oblerves.
Moft of thefe Writers were conftant attendants
on our Saviour, from his firft preaching to the
end of his Life •, fo that if they publifh'd any
untruths, we muft attribute them rather to their
defigns and intentions to impofe upon us, than
their ignorance : But by the following Confiderations
it will appear, they were willing as well as
able to tell us the naked truth.
1. It cannot be imagin'd they could forge the
Hiftory of the Life of Chrift , How could poor
Fi(hermen, ignorant Mechanicks, Men without
Learning, contrive fuch a Fiction as (hould in all
refpefts fo exaftly agree >
2. Suppofing they had been cunning Sophifters^
and fubtle enough to invent fuch a Hiftory, coulA
they