365)
rejected them--we have the only history of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, if
all accounts or narratives of Christ Jesus and his Apostles were
forgeries, as it is admitted that all the _Apocryphal_ ones were, what
can the superior character of the received Gospels prove for them, but
that they are merely superiorly executed forgeries? The existence of
Jesus is implied in the New Testament outside of the Gospels, _but
hardly an incident of his life is mentioned, hardly a sentence that he
spoke has been preserved_. Paul, writing from twenty to thirty years
after his death, has but a single reference to anything he ever said or
did.

Beside these four Gospels there were, as we said above, many others,
for, in the words of Mosheim, the ecclesiastical historian:

"Not long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several
histories of his life and doctrines, full of _pious frauds_
and _fabulous wonders_, were composed by persons whose
intentions, perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings
discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was
this all; _productions appeared, which were imposed upon the
world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy
apostles_."[459:2]

Dr. Conyers Middleton, speaking on this subject, says:

"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 names of Christ,
and the Apostles, and the Apostolic writers, as in those
primitive ages. _Several of these forged books are frequently
cited and applied to the defense of Christianity, by the most
eminent fathers of the same ages, as true and genuine
pieces._"[459:3]

Archbishop Wake also admits that:

"It would be useless to insist on all the spurious pieces
which were attributed to St. Paul alone, in the primitive ages
of Christianity."[460:1]

Some of the "spurious pieces which were attributed to St. Paul," may be
found to-day in our canonical New Testament, and are believed by many to
be the word of God.[460:2]

The learned Bishop Faustus, in speaking of the authenticity of the _New
Testament_, says:

"It is certain that the New Testament was not written by
Christ himself, nor by his apostles, but a long while after
them, _by some unknown persons_, who, lest t