§ 46. There is also a striking naturalness in the characters exhibited in the sacred historians, rarely if ever found in works of fiction, and probably nowhere else to be collected in a similar manner from fragmentary and incidental allusions and expressions, in the writings of different persons. Take, for example, that of Peter, as it may be gathered from the evangelists, and it will be hardly possible to conceive that four persons, writing at different times, could have concurred in the delineation of such a character, if it were not real; a character too, we must observe, which is nowhere expressly drawn, but is shown only here and there, casually, in the subordinate parts of the main narrative. Thus disclosed, it is that of a confident, sanguine, and zealous man; sudden and impulsive, yet humble and ready to retract; honest and direct in his purposes; ardently loving his master, yet deficient in fortitude and firmness in his cause.(70) When Jesus put any question to the apostles, it was Peter who was foremost to reply;(71) and if they would inquire of Jesus, it was Peter who was readiest to speak.(72) He had the impetuous courage to cut off the ear of the High Priest’s servant, who came to arrest his master; and the weakness to dissemble before the Jews, in the matter of eating with Gentile converts.(73) It was he who ran with John to the sepulchre, on the first intelligence of the resurrection of Jesus, and with characteristic zeal rushed in, while John paused without the door.(74) He had the ardour to desire and the faith to attempt to walk on the water, at the command of his Lord, but as soon as he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid.(75) He was the first to propose the election of another apostle in the place of Judas;(76) and he it was who courageously defended them all, on the day of Pentecost, when the multitude charged them with being filled with new wine.(77) He was forward to acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah;(78) yet having afterwards endangered his own life by wounding the servant of the High Priest, he suddenly consulted his own safety by denying the same Master, for whom, but a few hours before, he had declared himself ready to die.(79) We may safely affirm that the annals of fiction afford no example of a similar but not uncommon character, thus incidentally delineated.