Of these writings four are universally admitted to be genuine, and to have been composed prior to the year 60 of our era. Four more are genuine beyond all reasonable doubt, and of two more the evidence in favour of their authenticity is very strong. The Apocalypse, which is also admitted to be genuine, although not strictly an historical document, can be rendered valuable for the purposes of history. Of the remaining writings the genuineness is disputed; but whether genuine or not, it is impossible to deny their antiquity, and that they are faithful representations of the ideas of those who wrote them. In fact the names of their authors are of no great importance in the present controversy, when the writings themselves bear so decisively the marks of originality. Thus the epistle of James, by whomsoever written, bears the most unquestionable marks of the most primitive antiquity. It is in fact a document of the earliest form of Christianity,—in one word, the Jewish form, before the Church was finally separated from the synagogue.
Such are our historical materials. Little justice has been done to their value in the writings of Christian apologists. As included in the Canon of the New Testament, it has been for the most part the practice to view [pg 023] them as standing in need of defence, rather than as being the mainstay of the argument for historical Christianity, and constituting its central position.
It will be admitted that it will be impossible for me to do full justice to such a subject in a work like the present. To bring out all the treasures of evidence respecting primitive Christianity, and the foundation of the Christian Church which these writings contain, the whole subject would require to be unfolded in a distinct and separate treatise exclusively devoted to the subject. Still, however, this work would be very incomplete if I did not accept the challenge so boldly thrown down to us, and show that Christianity rests on an historical attestation of the highest order. To this I propose devoting the six concluding chapters of this work.
I intend, therefore, in the first place to examine the value of the historical documents of the New Testament, and show that several of the epistles take rank as the highest form of historical documents, and present us with what is to all intents and purposes a large mass of contemporaneous evidence as to the primitive beliefs, and the original foundation of the Christian Church. In doing so I propose to treat them in the same manner as all other similar historical documents are treated.
I shall then show that these documents afford a substantial testimony to all the great facts of Christianity, and especially to the existence of miraculous powers in the Church, and that the various Churches were from the very earliest period in possession of an oral account of the actions and teachings of Jesus Christ substantially the same as that which is now embodied in the Gospels; and that this oral Gospel was habitually used for the purposes of instruction. Further, that this [pg 024] oral Gospel was a substantial embodiment of the beliefs of the primitive followers of Jesus, and that the Church as a community was a body especially adapted for handing down correctly the account of the primitive beliefs respecting its origin, and that the peculiar position in which it was placed compelled it to do so.
I shall further show on the evidence furnished by those epistles, the genuineness of which unbelievers do not dispute, that from the earliest commencement of Christianity the whole body of believers, without distinction of sect or party, believed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as a fact, and viewed it not only as the groundwork on which Christianity rested, but as the one sole and only reason for the existence of the Christian Church. I shall be able also to prove on the same evidence that a considerable number of the followers of Jesus were persuaded that they had seen him alive after his crucifixion, and that his appearance was an actual resurrection from the dead. The same writings prove to demonstration that this was the universal belief of the whole Christian community, and that the Church was established on its basis.
These things being established as the basis for my reasonings, I shall proceed to prove that it is impossible that these beliefs of the Church could have owed their origin to any possible form of delusion; but that the resurrection of Jesus Christ was an historical fact, and that no other supposition can give an adequate account of the phenomenon.
Having proved that the greatest of all the miracles which are recorded in the Gospels is an historical fact, I have got rid of the à priori difficulty with which the acceptance of the Gospels as genuine historical accounts is attended; but further, if it is an historical fact that Jesus Christ really rose from the dead, it is in the [pg 025] highest degree probable that other supernatural occurrences would be connected with his person. I shall therefore proceed to restore the Gospels to their place as history, and to show that even on the principles of the opponents of Christianity, they have every claim to be accepted as true accounts of the action and teaching of Jesus Christ as it was transmitted by the different Churches, partly in an oral, and partly in a written form. I shall also show that even if they were composed at the late dates which are assigned to them by opponents, they were yet written within the period which is strictly historical, while tradition was fresh and reminiscences vivid, and long before it was possible that a great mass of facts which must have formed the basis of the existence of the Christian Church could have been superseded by a number of mythic and legendary creations. Having placed these facts on a firm foundation, I shall proceed to consider their accounts of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and to estimate its historical nature.
The proof that the greatest miracle recorded in the Gospels, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is an event which has really occurred, places the remainder of them in point of credibility in the same position as the facts of ordinary history; and they must be accepted and regarded in conformity with the usual methods of testing evidence.