the s words elsewhere the circumstances of the place and time explain the difference in the subjects treated of in this and the former this gospel appears accordingly to be the attempt of a but zealous of to his of the philosophy upon the original faith of the the divine wisdom or or light proceeding from god of which so much had been said in the school he tells us became a man or flesh in the person of dwelt for a time on earth and ascended up where he was before and where he had been from the beginning into the bosom of the father consequently this gospel shows throughout a double or object first to prove that is the christ which was common to all the and secondly that the christ is the son of god or which descended from heaven to give light to men � p to endeavor to reconcile john with his on the that all four wrote invariably true and correct history is evidently hopeless the are so far important ns to lead us inevitably to infer that in some of them and probably in all four there is a large measure of that which proceeds from imperfect knowledge forgetful ness or neglect in the case of john they are to such an extent as to show that neither he nor his paid much regard to the of his or used them as a guide in forming a new one an indeed could not be expected to frame his so as to agree with the works of previous if he known them but a disregard of them allowing of manifest either that those works were but little known in his church or that they had not yet become standards of authority � p on the origin of christianity in ch vii he the accounts of the and of christ with n ingenuity patience and as it seems to us and comes to the conclusion we have already stated perhaps it is the most valuable chapter in the whole we shall attempt no analysis of it from the valuable chapters on miracles we will quote the following john alone relates the raising of which if his were true was the most splendid and public of all the miracles for according to him it was done before friends and enemies without any of the usual to tell of it many came to see at the supper at and the people bare record of it when entered publicly into but notwithstanding all this neither mark nor appears to have had any knowledge of the affair � p the story of seems again to be forced upon the attention of the first three when they relate the entry of into and the conduct of the multitude for john says that the people then bare record of his having raised but here also they make not the slightest allusion to it it is impossible to conceive any plausible reason for this concealment when the same three appear so willing to relate all the miracles they were acquainted and actually relate some which were said to be done in secret that they had all forgotten this miracle so completely that it did not once occur to them whilst relating the connected circumstances cannot be imagined and if any miracle deserved a preference in the eyes of disposed to do honor to christ or even to give a faithful account of him it was this the acts and nowhere allude to this story although it would have afforded paul a very good instance of the of the body xv the first mention therefore of the most public and decisive of the miracles appears in a writing published at sixty years afterwards � most of the miracles attributed to christ are of the same kind the removal of natural if on opening the book which records his claims as a divine messenger we were to find instead of these stories of such of the causes of blindness fever and and to mankind to from the courses which lead to such evils the book would carry with it an evidence increasing vol iv no ii on the origin of christianity with the lapse of ages since the possession of such knowledge by a person in the age country and circumstances of christ would be as miraculous as any of the works referred to and all readers on finding that the results of the most advanced stages of human knowledge had been anticipated by the peasant of must themselves exclaim whence had this man this knowledge having never learned and we know that thou art a teacher sent by god for no man could have this wisdom unless god were with him � p chapters xii and xiv on the are essays which we shall pass over as similar views have long since been openly and publicly taught by some learned men in this century we will however give the following there are few nations whose early literature does not contain and pretended accomplishments of but and lost their credit even in ancient times the supposed still play a conspicuous part in the religion of the day yet on comparing them closely history accomplishment and failure alternate to such an extent that one important resemblance to their heathen kindred becomes palpable their credit can only be maintained by preserving their testament the of the old � in the two most conspicuous features of prophecy there could not be a more decided failure a triumphant of david was promised and a carpenter s son was was to be exalted and was nor were the christian more fortunate � the son of man was to appear again before that generation passed away and he has not yet appeared the contains many allusions to the affairs of rome and in the sixth book the shade of shows himself well acquainted with roman history up to the time 