3.

Accounts of any fet of men given by their ene mies only are always fufpicious. But the confef fions of enemies, and circumftances favourable to any body of men, collected from the writings of their adverfaries, are deferving of particular regard.

4.

It is more natural for men who wish to speak difparagingly of any fect to undervalue their numbers, as well as every thing elfe relating to them; and it is equally natural for those who wish to speak refpectfully of any party, to reprefent the members of it as more numerous than they are. Summary View, No. 13.

5.

When perfons form themselves into focieties, fo as to be distinguishable from others, they never fail to get fome particular name, either affumed by themselves, or impofed by others. This is neceffary in order to make them the fubject of converfation, long periphrafes in difcourfe being very inconvenient. Summary View, No. 8,

6.

When particular opinions are afcribed to a particular clafs of men, without any diftinction of the time when thofe opinions were adopted by them, it may be prefumed, that they were supposed to hold thofe opinions from the time that they received their denomination. Summary View, No.4, 7. When

When a particular defcripton is given of a class of perfons within any period of time, any perfon who can be proved to have the proper character of one of that clais, may be deemed to have belorged to it, and to have enjoyed all the privileges of it, whatever they were. Summary View, No. 9.

i.

When an historian, or writer of any kind, profeffedly enumerates the feveral pectes belonging to any genus, or general body of men, and omits any par ticular fpecies, or denomination, which, if it had belonged to the genus, he, from his fituation and circumftances, was not likely to have overlooked, it may be prefumed that he did not consider that particular species as belonging to the genus. Summary View, No. 7.

Great changes in opinion are not uiually made of a fudden, and never by great bodies of men. That hiftory, therefore, which reprelents fuch changes as having been made gradually, and by eaty teps, is always the more probable on that account. Summary View, No. 16.

10.

The common or unlearned people, in any countty, who do not fpeculate much, retain longest any opinions with which their minds have been much impreffed; and therefore we always look for the eldeft opinions in any country, or any class of men,

among

among the common people, and not among the learned. Summary View, No. 13, 14.

II.

If any new opinions be introduced into a fociety, they are most likely to have introduced them, who held opinions fimilar to them before they joined that fociety. Summary View, No. 15,

12.

If any particular opinion has never failed to excite great indignation in all ages and nations, where a contrary opinion has been generally received, and that particular opinion can be proved to have existed in any age or country when it did not excite indignation, it may be concluded that it had many partizans in that age or country. For the opinion being the fame, it could not of itself be more respectable; and human nature being the fame, it could not but have been regarded in the same light, fo long as the fame stress was laid on the oppofite opinion. Summary View, No. 1. 11, 12.

13.

When a time is given, in which any very remarkable and interesting opinion was not believed by a certain clafs of people, and another time in which the belief of it was general, the intro duction of fuch an opinion may always be known by the effects which it will produce upon the minds, and in the conduct of men; by the alarm which it will give to fome, and the defence of it by

others.

others. If, therefore, no alarm was given, and no defence of it was made within any particular period, it may be concluded that the introduction of it did not take place within that period. Summary View, No. 2, 3. 6.

14.

When any particular opinion or practice, is neceffarily or customarily accompanied by any other opinion or practice; if the latter be not found within any particular period, it may be prefumed that, the former did not exist within that period. Summary View, No. 5.

IX.

A fummary view of the evidence for the primitive cbriftians having held the doctrine of the fimple bumanity of Chrift.

1. It is acknowledged by early writers of the orthodox persuasion, that two kinds of herefy existed in the times of the apostles, viz. that of those who held that Chrift was fimply a man; and that of the Gnoftics; of whom fome believed that Chrift was man only in appearance, and others that it was only Jefus, and not the Chrift (a pre-exiftent fpirit who defcended from heaven and dwelt in him) that fuffered on the crofs. Now the apoftle John animadverts with the greatest severity upon the latter, but makes no mention of the former; and can it be thought probable

probable that he would pafs it without cenfure, if he had thought it to be an error; confidering how great, and how dangerous an error it has always been thought by thofe who have confidered it as being an error at all? Maxim 12,

2. The great objection that Jews have always made to christianity in its prefent ftate is, that it enjoins the worship of more gods than one; and it is a great article with the chriftian writers of the fecond and following centuries to answer this objection. But it does not appear in all the book of Acts, in which we hear much of the cavils of the Jews, both in Jerufalem and in many parts of the Roman empire, that they made any fuch objection to chriftianity then; nor do the apoftles, either there, or in their epiftles, advance any thing with a view to fuch an objection. It may be prefumed, therefore, that no fuch offence to the Jews had then been given, by the preaching of a doctrine fo offenfive to them as that of the divinity of Chrift must have been. Maxim 12. 13.

3. As no Jew had originally any idea of their Meffiah being more than a man, and as the apofties and the first chriftians had certainly the fame idea at firft concerning Jefus, it may be fuppofed, that, if ever they had been informed that Jefus was not a man, but either God himself, or the maker of the world under God, we fhould have been able to trace the time and the circumstances in which so great a difcovery was made to them

and