Apostolici,” a letter ascribed to Peter, written
to James at Jerusalem wherein he complains bitterly
of Paul, styling him “a lawless man,”
and a crafty misrepresenter of him (Peter,) and his
doctrine, in that Paul represented, every where, Peter
as being secretly of the same opinions with himself;
against this he enters his protest, and declares that
he reprobates the doctrine of Paul. (See Appendix
B.) 3. It is certain, that from the beginning,
the Christians were never agreed as to points of faith;
and that the apostles themselves, so far from being
considered as inspired, and infallible, were frequently
contradicted, thwarted, and set at naught by their
own converts: and there were as many sects, heresies,
and quarrels, in the first century, as in the second
or third. 4. Jesus and his apostles were no sooner
off the stage, than forgeries of all kinds broke in
with irresistible force: Gospels, Epistles, Acts,
Revelations without number, published in the names,
and under the feigned authority, of Jesus and his
apostles, abounded in the Christian church; and as
some of these were as early in time as any of the
writings in the present canon of the New Testament,
so they were received promiscuously with them, and
held in equal credit and veneration, and read in the
public assemblies as of equal authority with those
now received. 5. The very learned and pious Dodwell,
in his Dissertations on Iraeneus avows, that he cannot
find in ecclesiastical antiquities, (which he understood
better than any man of his age,) any evidence at all,
that the four Gospels were known or heard of, before
the time of Trajan, and Adrian, i.e. before the
middle of the second century, i. e. nearly a hundred
years after the apostles were dead. (See Appendix C.)
Long before this time, we know that there were extant
numbers of spurious gospels, forged, and ascribed
to the apostles; and we have not the least evidence
to be depended on, that those now received were not
also apocryphal. For they were written nobody
certainly knows by whom, or where, or when. They
first appeared in an age of credulity, when forgeries
of this kind abounded and were received with avidity
by those whose opinions they favoured, while they
were rejected as spurious by many sects of Christians,
who asserted that they were possessed of the genuine
apostles, which, however, those who received “the
four,” denied. 6. All the different sects
of Christians, without a known exception, altered,
interpolated, and without scruple garbled, their different
copies of their various and discordant gospels, in
order to adapt them to their jarring and whimsical
philosophical notions, Celsus accuses them of this,
and they accuse each other. And that they were
continually tampering with their copies of the books
of the New Testament, is evident from the immense
number of various readings, and from some whole phrases,
and even verses, which for knavish purposes were foisted
into the text, but have been detected, and exposed