CHAPTER XVI.

Examination of the evidence, external and
internal, in favor of the credibility of the
gospel history.

In the preceding chapters, I have taken the New Testament as I found it, and have argued upon the supposition that Jesus and the apostles really said, and reasoned, as has been stated.  I will now endeavour to show, by an examination of the authenticity of the four gospels, that it is not certain that they were really guilty of such mistakes as are related of them in those books.

The life and doctrines of Jesus, and his followers, are contained in the pieces composing the volume called the New Testament.  The genuineness of the books, i. e., whether they were written by those to whom they are ascribed, must be judged of, from the external testimony concerning them, and from internal marks in the books themselves; for the miraculous acts therein, and therein only, contained and related, cannot prove the truth and authenticity of the books, because the authority and credibility of the books themselves must be firmly established, before the miracles related in them can reasonably be admitted as real facts.

Now, the external evidence in favour of these books, is the testimony of those men called “the fathers;” and as the value of testimony depends upon the character of the witnesses, it would be proper, first, to state as much as, can be learned of these men.  As time will not permit me to adduce all that might be said upon this subject, I shall here only take upon me to assert, that they were most credulous, superstitious, and weak men, and, what is worse, made no scruple of falsifying, to support and favour what they called “the cause of truth;” for they were writers of apocryphal books, attributing them to the apostles, and, moreover, great miracle-mongers, who vamped up stories of prodigies to delude their followers, and which they themselves knew to be false.  I say, I take upon me to assert this; and to confirm and establish this accusation, I refer the reader to Dr. Middleton’s “Free Enquiry,” a learned Christian, who, therefore, had no interest to misrepresent this matter; and he will there find these accusations amply verified, and traits of character proved upon them.  By no means favourable to the credibility of their testimony.

The first of these Fathers whose testimony is usually adduced to prove the authenticity of the Gospels, is Papias, a Disciple of John.  The character given of him by Eusebius is, that “he was a superstitious, and credulous man.”  And this is easily proved by recording some of the stories, concerning Jesus, and his followers, written by this Papias in a book extant in the time of Eusebius.  One of these stories is mentioned by Irenoeus, who says, that Papias had it from John; who, according