CHAPTER I. IS IT A THING INCREDIBLE THAT THE GOSPELS AS FIRST GIVEN TO MEN SHOULD HAVE EXHIBITED A PERFECT UNITY OF DESIGN AND EXECUTION? HOWEVER wide a range of subjects might be taken, it would probably be impossible to formulate any proposition which should at once suggest such conclusive evidences of its own incredibility, and yet be in itself so intrinsically probable, as the following: "That the real order of events related in the four Gospels is not a matter of opinion, but is capable of absolute demonstration." The proposition is at first sight in direct contradiction to all the evidences supplied by the Gospels themselves; it is altogether opposed to opinions, which are the product of centuries of inquiry, and which in modern times have been endorsed alike by scholars and theologians; its acceptance would mean, not only that this or that set of opinions upon a great variety of keenly debated questions must be erroneous, but that at least the great majority of the alleged discrepancies and contradictions, which give rise to such controversies, are simply non-existent. H. G. e Assume the proposition to be true, and the very cornerstone of works written for the purpose of impugning the historical truthfulness of the Gospels at once falls from its place, whilst a whole class of works dealing with the other side of the question become at once mere literary anachronisms. Such a monument of patient labour and critical investigation as those five octavo volumes of Dissertations, in which Mr Greswell supported the views put forward in what for a long time was the received text-book of our two Universities, the Harmonia Evangelica, must, for instance, appear, in spite of the vast wealth of learning which it exhibits, to be merely a house built upon the sand; all his "Dissertations" turning out to be based upon an utter fallacy, and that simply because, of all the 'transpositions' of the text which they are meant to justify, scarcely one would be found to be either necessary or admissible. And yet, in spite of all this array of evidence of incredibility, the proposition undoubtedly does carry with it a certain air of intrinsic probability-a probability manifestly arising from the fact that the establishment of it would only be a fresh testimony to the certain erroneousness of all opinions, however universally held, which in the smallest degree derogate from the perfect Unity and Truthfulness of the several parts of the Inspired Word of God. But having already placed on one side of the balance the antecedent incredibility admittedly attaching to our proposition, let us place on the other some further and more detailed suggestions with reference to its antecedent and intrinsic probability. For only by so doing, and that on the very threshold of our inquiry, is it at all possible to anticipate the unreasoning non placet of the objector, and to counteract the feeling of impatience and consequent prejudice, which any reopening of a question generally supposed to be settled for all time, must necessarily evoke. Of the many considerations which might more or less serve the purpose thus indicated, perhaps the following will carry the most weight I. Existing opinions with regard to the Gospels, so far as they are inconsistent with the Gospels being in the fullest sense of the word INSPIRED, rest upon an assumption, which itself rests upon merely assumed inaccuracies, and which, if erroneous, is a snare as fatal to any adequate examination of them as any glaringly false assumption would necessarily be in any subject of recognised scientific inquiry. Let us suppose the Inspiration of Holy Scripture to be accepted in the plain sense of such passages as the following, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Isaiah the prophet. Acts xxviii. 25. It is not ye that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Mark xiii. II. Thus saith the Holy Ghost. Acts xxi. II. As the Holy Ghost saith, To-day if ye &c. Heb. iii. 7. No prophecy ever came by the will of man: but men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost. 2 Peter i. 21. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that &c. Heb. ix. 8. It will then follow as a necessary consequence (1) That the books of Holy Scripture are not to be judged exclusively, nor even primarily, by the laws which |