n upon
the origin of the three first Gospels, it follows, that these Gospels
could not have been written by the Apostles, and immediate
followers of Jesus Christ; for certainly, men personally and
intimately acquainted with all his actions, and all his doctrines, (as
were his Apostles and all his immediate followers, and influenced
too by the Holy Ghost, as they are all represented to have been in
the book of Acts, ch. iv. 31,) in setting about writing Memoirs of
Jesus, would write from their own complete, inspired and personal
knowledge; and would not compile from "books which had gone
through various hands, and been variously altered and added to in
the passage." No! such a procedure would be that of men who
had no personal knowledge of the events they undertook to
record; and who were therefore obliged to consult books for
information.

In order to place in a fair light the absurdity of supposing the four
Gospels to have been written by the Apostles and first followers of
Jesus, I will suppose, a case. Suppose there should appear in the
world, four different Lives of Napoleon pretending to have been
written by four of his aids de camp, who had constantly been near
his person, from the time that he commanded the troops in Paris
till his dethronement; and that one of them represented that the
expedition to Egypt took place when he was General of the troops
in Paris, another that it took place when he was first Consul, and
the others that it took place when he was Emperor. Would any
man believe, that ALL these books were written by aids de-camp
of Napoleon, who had been constantly near his person from the
time that he commanded the troops of Paris till his
dethronement?]

[fn15 The New Testament, is I believe unparalleled among all the
ancient books that have come down to us for the number, and
importance of the corruptions, and alterations, it has undergone.
What! can learned Christians tell us of several hundred thousands
of various readings, in copies of a small book like the New
Testament--that almost every, perhaps every verse has been
altered, interpolated, or retrenched in some copy or other--and
then add in the same breath that the book is nevertheless to be
received, as containing the uncorrupted doctrines of the founders
of Christianity? If we did not know the inconsistency, and
blindness of prejudice, one might be tempted to suspect that these
learned men were hardly sincere.

What! is it to be insist