ce of time, the account as we have it is
perhaps more credible than it would have been the other way; because
this manifestation of the historians' candour is of more advantage to
their testimony than the difference in the circumstances of the account
would have been to the nature of the evidence. But this is an effect
which the evangelists would not foresee: and I think that it was by no
means the case at the time when the books were composed.

Mr. Gibbon has argued for the genuineness of the Koran, from the
confessions which it contains, to the apparent disadvantage of the
Mahometan cause. (Vol. ix. c. 50, note 96.) The same defence vindicates
the genuineness of our Gospels, and without prejudice to the cause at
all.

There are some other instances in which the evangelists honestly relate
what they must have perceived would make against them.

Of this kind is John the Baptist's message preserved by Saint Matthew
(xi. 2) and Saint Luke (vii. 18): "Now when John had heard in the prison
the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him,
Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?" To confess, still
more to state, that John the Baptist had his doubts concerning the
character of Jesus, could not but afford a handle to cavil and
objection. But truth, like honesty, neglects appearances. The same
observation, perhaps, holds concerning the apostacy of Judas.*

_________

* I had once placed amongst these examples of fair concession the
remarkable words of Saint Matthew in his account of Christ's appearance
upon the Galilean mountain: "And when they saw him they worshipped him;
but some doubted." (Chap. xxviii. 17.) I have since, however, been
convinced, by what is observed concerning this passage in Dr.
Townshend's Discourse (Page 177.) upon the Resurrection, that the
transaction, as related by Saint Matthew, was really this: "Christ
appeared first at a distance; the greater part of the company, the
moment they saw him, worshipped, but some as yet, i.e. upon this first
distant view of his person, doubted; whereupon Christ came up to them,
and spake to them,"+ &c.: that the doubt, therefore, was a doubt only at
first for a moment, and upon his being seen at a distance, and was
afterwards dispelled by his nearer approach, and by his entering into
conversation with them.

+ Saint Matthew's words are: kai proselthon o Iesous elalesen autois
[and having come toward them, Jesus spoke]. This intim