OF THE DIRECT HISTORICAL EVIDENCE OF CHRISTIANITY, CHAP. I. That there is not satisfactory evidence, that persons pretending to be original witnesses of any other similar miracles, have acted in the same manner, in attestation of the accounts which they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief CHAP. VI.-Conformity of the facts occasionally mentioned or referred to in Scripture, with the state of things in those times, CHAP. VIII. Of the History of the Resurrection CHAP. IX. Of the Propagation of Christianity. CHAP. I.-The Discrepancies between the several Gospels. . . 201 CHAP. II.-Erroneous Opinions imputed to the Apostles. . . . 203 CHAP. V. That the Christian miracles are not recited, or ap- pealed to, by early Christian writers themselves, so fully or fre- quently as might have been expected CHAP. VI. Want of universality in the knowledge and reception of Christianity, and of greater clearness in the evidence ... 222 MEMOIRS OF THE AUTHOR. WILLIAM PALEY, author of the following admirable volumes, was born at Peterborough, in the month of July, 1743. The day of his birth has not been preserved, but his baptism was solemnized on the 30th of August. His family was reputable and ancient, having resided for several generations in Craven, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. In this district, his great-grandfather John, and his grandfather Thomas Paley, enjoyed in succession a small patrimonial estate at Langcliffe, in the parish of Giggleswick. The father of our Author bore the same name, and was of the same college and profession, as his son. Having proceeded to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, at Christ's College, Cambridge, he was instituted August, 1735, to the vicarage of Helpstone, a small benefice in Northamptonshire. His promotion to a minor canonry in the cathedral church of Peterborough, occasioned him to fix his residence in that city; and here it was that the subject of these memoirs received his birth. He was the eldest child, and only son; but the family was subsequently augmented by the birth of three daughters. His mother was Elizabeth Clapham (of Stackhouse, in the parish of Giggleswick,) a woman commended for her strength and activity of mind; which qualities her son inherited, as well as the benevolence of disposition ascribed to his father. Although our Author at his birth seemed excluded from the soil on which his ancestors had long resided; yet fortune, at an early age, transplanted him to the same northern abode. In 1745, his father resigned his minor canonry, and removed to Giggleswick, upon receiving the appointment of head master to the Free Grammar School established there. By this change, young Paley was placed within the sphere of those local and moral associations, which are supposed to have had a strong and permanent influence upon his character. "His originality," observes one of his friends, "I apprehend after all must be traced to the peculiar scene of his boyhood and youth. In a spot comparatively rude and rustic, like Giggleswick, in the free and familiar acquaintance with a people of strong mother-wit and Sabine simplicity, the peculiar genius of Paley was formed, void of art, and abhorrent to all affectation.' An able critic has attributed equal power to the same cause. The inhabitants of the rugged and remote tract of Craven, have, he assures us, like other mountaineers, a character more strongly marked than their lowland neighbours, from which Paley derived an early tincture, which no intercourse with the world ever wore off, or produced an inclination to wear off. They possess clear and shrewd understandings; great humour and naïveté in their conversation, fondness for old stories, rusticity often affected, and a dialect which heightens and sets off every other peculiarity. Amidst a people of such native originality, the mind of Paley received its earliest ideas and impressions. To his father he was indebted, as well for the first seeds of scholastic knowledge, as for the careful infusion of moral and religious principles. No instances of remarkable precocity are related of him; although his boyhood was distinguished by a studious disposition of mind, and greater habits of reflection than are usually discovered at that age: These might be increased by his inability to join in the ordinary amusements of youth. He was excluded from all athletic sports, by wanting in body that activity which nature had liberally bestowed upon his mind; so that the quiet and indolent recreation of angling was the principal amusement in which he took delight. His mind was ardent and his curiosity active, especially upon subjects of mechanical ingenuity. That attention also, which he paid through his whole life, to the laws of his country, and the practice of courts of justice, was early awakened in his bosom. Having been present one year at the assizes in Lancaster, his youthful fancy was so • Quarterly Review, No. xviii. p. 390. |