DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6359#0145
incidental testimony.
129
for the occasion: undesigned coincidences, therefore, (particu-
larly when found in documents having no connection with,
°r reference to, the same principal subject.) are never to be
slighted in weighing testimony.
These are important considerations to be borne in mind
upon the very threshold of the investigation on which we are
about to enter. What, for instance, are the facts ? We are in
Possession of a very ancient documentary history, the Bible,
the truth of which is established satisfactorily to our minds by
distinct and independent testimony, directly applicable to the
lUestion of its truth or falsehood. Almost within the present
§efteration, the interesting discovery has been made of the mode
°f interpreting the characters, long illegible, delineated on the
Monuments and in the writings of an ancient country, a -part
°f whose history is found incidentally written in our Bible,
because it was connected with the progress of another people,
°f whom our book professedly gives the history. Now it is
Very obvious, that if these modern discoveries bring to light
jstorical events which synchronize with the relation of them
§Iven m our i^q^ . or if tney illustrate, hi hundreds of par-
*lculars, national usages, or manners, or arts, all of which are
f°Und. to harmonize with what our document casually illus-
|rates of customs, &c, among the ancient people to whom it
^dentally refers; then cumulative testimony is afforded
reby to the truth of our document, so far, at least, as our
* and the monuments professedly speak of the same thing.
th' i 'S trUG' "lc'eet*' tnat tne Bible does not actually need
CUrnulative testimony to its authenticity. Every subject
^vestigation must primarily be examined by the species of
esUmony applicable to the proof of its truth; and of this
"able proof, we apprehend there is quite enough to sustain
9
129
for the occasion: undesigned coincidences, therefore, (particu-
larly when found in documents having no connection with,
°r reference to, the same principal subject.) are never to be
slighted in weighing testimony.
These are important considerations to be borne in mind
upon the very threshold of the investigation on which we are
about to enter. What, for instance, are the facts ? We are in
Possession of a very ancient documentary history, the Bible,
the truth of which is established satisfactorily to our minds by
distinct and independent testimony, directly applicable to the
lUestion of its truth or falsehood. Almost within the present
§efteration, the interesting discovery has been made of the mode
°f interpreting the characters, long illegible, delineated on the
Monuments and in the writings of an ancient country, a -part
°f whose history is found incidentally written in our Bible,
because it was connected with the progress of another people,
°f whom our book professedly gives the history. Now it is
Very obvious, that if these modern discoveries bring to light
jstorical events which synchronize with the relation of them
§Iven m our i^q^ . or if tney illustrate, hi hundreds of par-
*lculars, national usages, or manners, or arts, all of which are
f°Und. to harmonize with what our document casually illus-
|rates of customs, &c, among the ancient people to whom it
^dentally refers; then cumulative testimony is afforded
reby to the truth of our document, so far, at least, as our
* and the monuments professedly speak of the same thing.
th' i 'S trUG' "lc'eet*' tnat tne Bible does not actually need
CUrnulative testimony to its authenticity. Every subject
^vestigation must primarily be examined by the species of
esUmony applicable to the proof of its truth; and of this
"able proof, we apprehend there is quite enough to sustain
9