to satisfy the balance of the world.[230:4]

The first that we knew of the fourth Gospel--attributed to _John_--is
from the writings of _Irenaeus_ (A. D. 177-202), and the evidence is that
_he is the author of it_.[230:5] That controversies were rife in his day
concerning the resurrection of Jesus, is very evident from other
sources. We find that at this time the resurrection of the dead
(according to the accounts of the Christian forgers) was very far from
being esteemed an uncommon event; that the miracle was frequently
performed on necessary occasions by great fasting and the joint
supplication of the church of the place, and that the persons thus
restored by their prayers had lived afterwards among them many years. At
such a period, when faith could boast of so many wonderful victories
over death, it seems difficult to account for the skepticism of those
philosophers, who still rejected and derided the doctrine of the
resurrection. A noble Grecian had rested on this important ground the
whole controversy, and promised Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, _that if
he could be gratified by the sight of a single person who had been
actually raised from the dead, he would immediately embrace the
Christian religion_.

"It is somewhat remarkable," says Gibbon, the historian, from whom we
take the above, "that the prelate of the first Eastern Church, however
anxious for the conversion of his friend, thought proper to _decline_
this fair and reasonable challenge."[231:1]

This Christian _saint_, Irenaeus, had invented many stories of others
being raised from the dead, for the purpose of attempting to strengthen
the belief in the resurrection of Jesus. In the words of the Rev.
Jeremiah Jones:

"Such _pious frauds_ were very common among Christians even in
the first three centuries; and a forgery of this nature, with
the view above-mentioned, _seems natural and probable_."

One of these "_pious frauds_" is the "_Gospel of Nicodemus the Disciple,
concerning the Sufferings and Resurrection of our Master and Saviour
Jesus Christ_." Although attributed to Nicodemus, a disciple of Jesus,
it has been shown to be a forgery, written towards the close of the
second century--during the time of _Irenaeus_, the well-known pious
forger. In this book we find the following:

"And now hear me a little. We all know the blessed Simeon, the
high-priest, who took Jesus when an infant into his arms in
the temple. Th