ated by Surius in his Commentary
on his own times. The truth is, that many false legends of true martyrs
were forged by heretics, as were those of St. George, condemned by pope
Gelasius, as many false gospels were soon after the birth of
Christianity, of which we have the names of near fifty extant. Other
wicked or mistaken persons have sometimes been guilty of a like
imposture. A priest at Ephesus forged acts of St. Paul's voyages, out of
veneration for that apostle, and was deposed for it by St. John the
evangelist, as we learn from Tertullian. To instance examples of this
nature would form a complete history; for the church has always most
severely condemned all manner of forgeries. Sometimes the more virtuous
and remote from fraud a person is, the more unwilling he is to suspect
an imposture in others. Some great and good men have been imposed upon
by lies, and have given credit to false histories, but without being
privy to the forgery; and nothing erroneous, dangerous, or prejudicial
was contained in what they unwarily admitted. However, if credulity in
private histories was too easy in any former age, certainly skepticism
and infidelity are the characters of this in which we live. No
histories, except those of holy scripture, are proposed as parts of
divine revelation or articles of faith; all others rest upon their bare
historical authority. They who do not think this good and sufficient in
any narrations, do well to suggest modestly their reasons; yet may look
upon them at least as parables, and leave others the liberty of judging
for themselves without offence. But Mr. Bower says, p. 177, 'The Roman
Breviary is the most authentic book the {026} church of Rome has, after
the scripture; it would be less dangerous, at least in Italy, to deny
any truth revealed in the scripture, than to question any fable related
in the Breviary.' Catholic divines teach that every tittle in the holy
scriptures is sacred, divinely inspired, and the word of God dictated by
the Holy Ghost. Even the definitions of general councils do not enjoy an
equal privilege; they are indeed the oracles of an unerring guide in the
doctrine of faith; which guide received, together with the scriptures,
the true sense and meaning of the articles of faith contained in them;
and, by the special protection of the Holy Ghost, invariably preserves
the same by tradition from father to son, according to the promises of
Christ. But the church receives no new r