ious, and weak men, and, what is worse,
made no scruple of falsifying, to support and favour what they
called "the cause of truth;" for they were writers of apocryphal
books, attributing them to the apostles, and, moreover, great
miracle-mongers, who vamped up stories of prodigies to delude
their followers, and which they themselves knew to be false. I say,
I take upon me to assert this; and to confirm and establish this
accusation, I refer the reader to Dr. Middleton's "Free Enquiry," a
learned Christian, who, therefore, had no interest to misrepresent
this matter; and he will there find these accusations amply verified,
and traits of character proved upon them. By no means favourable
to the credibility of their testimony.

The first of these Fathers whose testimony is usually adduced to
prove the authenticity of the Gospels, is Papias, a Disciple of John.
The character given of him by Eusebius is, that "he was a
superstitious, and credulous man." And this is easily proved by
recording some of the stories, concerning Jesus, and his followers,
written by this Papias in a book extant in the time of Eusebius. One
of these stories is mentioned by Irenoeus, who says, that Papias
had it from John; who, according to Papias, said, that Jesus said,
that--" The days shall come, in which there shall be vines, which
shall severally have ten thousand branches; and every one of these
branches shall have ten thousand lesser branches; and every one of
these branches shall have ten thousand twigs; and every one of
these twigs shall have ten thousand clusters of grapes; and every
one of these grapes being pressed shall yield two hundred and
seventy-five gallons of wine. And when a man shall take hold of
any of these sacred bunches, another bunch shall cry out "I am a
better bunch, take me, and bless the Lord by me!" There's a
Munchausen for you, reader! Well! this Papias is the first witness
who lived after Matthew, who has spoken of his Gospel. He lived
about the year 116 after Jesus. And what does he say of it? Why
this. "Matthew composed a writing of the Oracles (meaning
without doubt the Doctrines of the Gospel,) in the Hebrew
Language, and every one interpreted them as he was able." So far
as this Testimony goes it is positive evidence, that the only Gospel
of Matthew extant in 116, was extant in Hebrew; and there was
then no translation, of it, for "every one interpreted as he was
able." The present gospel called of Matthew was