en forgeries of this kind abounded and were received
with avidity by those whose opinions they favoured, while they
were rejected as spurious by many sects of Christians, who
asserted that they were possessed of the genuine apostles, which,
however, those who received "the four," denied. 6. All the
different sects of Christians, without a known exception, altered,
interpolated, and without scruple garbled, their different copies of
their various and discordant gospels, in order to adapt them to their
jarring and whimsical philosophical notions, Celsus accuses them
of this, and they accuse each other. And that they were continually
tampering with their copies of the books of the New Testament, is
evident from the immense number of various readings, and from
some whole phrases, and even verses, which for knavish purposes
were foisted into the text, but have been detected, and exposed by
Griesbach, and others. They also forged certain rhapsodies under
the name of "Sybbiline Oracles," and then adduce them as
prophetic proofs of the truth of their religion. They also
interpolated certain clumsy forgeries as prophecies of Jesus into
their copies of their Greek version of the Old Testament. 7. The
present canon of the New Testament has never been sanctioned by
the general consent of Christians. The Syrian church rejects some
of its books;--some of its books were not admitted until after long
opposition, and not until several hundred years after Jesus. The
lists of what were considered as canonical books, differ in different
ages, and some books now acknowledged by all Christians to be
forgeries, were in the second and third centuries considered as
equally apostolic as those now received, and as such, were publicly
read in the churches. 8. The reason why we have not now extant
gospels, different and contradictory to those now received, is,
because that the sect or party which finally got the better of its
adversaries, and styled itself Catholic, or orthodox, took care to
burn and destroy the heretics, and their gospels with them. They
likewise took care to hunt up and burn the books of the pagan
adversaries of Christianity, "because they were shockingly
offensive to pious ears." 9. Semler considered the New Testament
as a collection of pious frauds, written for pious purposes, in the
latter part of the second century, (the very time assigned for their
first appearance by Dodwell.) Evanson adopts, and gives good
reasons for a s