eld to be the purest: but when they had once acquired that title from
the authority of a few leading men; it is not strange to find it
ascribed to them by every body else; without knowing or inquiring into
the grounds of it. But whatever advantage of purity those first ages
may claim in some particular respects, it is certain that they were
defective in some others, above all which have since succeeded them.
For there never was any period of time in all ecclesiastical history,
in which so many rank heresies were publicly professed, nor in which so
many spurious books were forged and published by the Christians, under
the name of Christ, and the apostles, and the apostolic writers, as in
those primitive ages; several of which forged hooks are frequently
cited and applied to the defence of Christianity by the most eminent
fathers of the same ages, as true and genuine pieces, and of equal
authority with the scriptures themselves. And no man surely can doubt
but that those who would either forge or make use of forged books,
would in the same cause and for the same ends, make use of forged
miracles." Let the reader remember that the Gospels according to
Matthew and John are forgeries, and then apply this reasoning of Dr.
Middleton's to the miracles contained in those Gospels. With regard to
all the miracles of the New Testament, we know them only by report, and
it is an acknowledged, because a demonstrable fact, that the age in
which the accounts of these miracles were published, was an age
overflowing with imposture and credulity. "Such," says Bishop Fell,
"was the license of fiction in the first ages, and so easy the
credulity, that testimony of the facts of that time is to be received
with great caution, as not only the pagan world, but the church of God,
has just reason to complain of its fabulous age." Stillingfleet says,
"that antiquity is defective most where it is most important, In the
awe immediately succeeding that of the apostles." Now be it
recollected, that the Gospels first appeared in this age of fraud and
credulity; and be it further remembered, that the authenticity of the
Gospels, according to Matthew and John can be subverted, if marks of
imposture, which would cause the rejection of any other books, are
sufficient to affect the authenticity of those received as sacred. It
is to be remarked farther, that the church in its first ages was full
of forged hooks, giving accounts of the same events, different fro