ht of this Gospel from some sectaries who
used it. (Lardner, Cred. vol. ii. p. 557.) Even of the Gospel of the
Hebrews, which confessedly stands at the head of the catalogue, Jerome,
at the end of the fourth century, was glad to procure a copy by the
favour of the Nazarenes of Berea. Nothing of this sort ever happened, or
could have happened, concerning our Gospels.

One thing is observable of all the apocryphal Christian writings, viz.
that they proceed upon the same fundamental history of Christ and his
apostles as that which is disclosed in our Scriptures. The mission of
Christ, his power of working miracles, his communication of that power
to the apostles, his passion, death, and resurrection, are assumed or
asserted by every one of them. The names under which some of them came
forth are the names of men of eminence in our histories. What these
books give are not contradictions, but unauthorised additions. The
principal facts are supposed, the principal agents the same; which shows
that these points were too much fixed to be altered or disputed.

If there be any book of this description which appears to have imposed
upon some considerable number of learned Christians, it is the Sibylline
oracles; but when we reflect upon the circumstances which facilitated
that imposture, we shall cease to wonder either at the attempt or its
success. It was at that time universally understood that such a
prophetic writing existed. Its contents were kept secret. This situation
afforded to some one a hint, as well as an opportunity, to give out a
writing under this name, favourable to the already established
persuasion of Christians, and which writing, by the aid and
recommendation of these circumstances, would in some degree, it is
probable, be received. Of the ancient forgery we know but little; what
is now produced could not, in my opinion, have imposed upon any one. It
is nothing else than the Gospel history woven into verse; perhaps was at
first rather a fiction than a forgery; an exercise of ingenuity, more
than an attempt to deceive.

CHAPTER X.

RECAPITULATION.

The reader will now be pleased to recollect, that the two points which
form the subject of our present discussion are, first, that the Founder
of Christianity, his associates, and immediate followers, passed their
lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings; secondly, that they did so in
attestation of the miraculous history recorded in our Scriptures, and