m
those of the books of the New Testament. The different sects, and the
church itself, was torn by as many schisms then as it ever has been
since, who mutually accuse each other of corrupting the Christians
scriptures, and of lying, and cheating most abominably.

All reasoning therefore from books published at this time, and whose
authenticity is supported only by the testimony of acknowledged liars;
and which have been tampered with too as these certainly were, is
exceedingly unsatisfactory. And yet such is the basis on which rests
the credibility of the miracles of the New Testament. Dr. Middleton,
after having shown, beginning at the earliest of the fathers
immediately after the apostles, that they were all most amazingly
credulous and superstitious: and having demonstrated from their own
words, that from Justin Martyr downwards they were all liars, observes
as follows, p. 157, Free Inquiry: "Now it is agreed by all, that these
fathers, whose testimonies I have been just reciting were the most
eminent lights of the fourth century; all of them sainted by the
catholic church, and highly reverenced at this day in all churches, for
their piety, probity, and learning. Yet from the specimens of them
above given, it is evident, that they would not scruple to propagate
any fiction, how gross so ever, which served to promote the interest
either of Christianity in general, or of any particular rite or
doctrine which they were desirous to recommend. St. Jerom in effect
confesses it, for after the mention of a silly story, concerning the
Christians of Jerusalem, who used to shew in the ruins of the temple,
certain stones of a reddish color, which they pretended to have been
stained by the blood of Zacharias the son of Barachias, who was slain
between the temple and the altar, he adds, but I do not find fault with
an error which flows from a hatred of the Jews, and a pious zeal for
the Christian faith. If the miracles then of the fourth century, so
solemnly attested by the most celebrated and revered fathers of the
church, are to be rejected after all as fabulous, it must needs give a
fatal blow to the credit of all the miracles even of the preceding
centuries; since there is not a single father whom I have mentioned in
this fourth age, who for zeal and piety may not be compared with the
best of the more ancient, and for knowledge, and for learning be
preferred to them all. For instance, there was not a person in all the
prim