h are cited by the earliest
fathers with the same respect as those now received, should not be
accounted equally authentic by them; and what stress should be
laid on the testimony of those fathers, who not only contradict one
another, but are often inconsistent with themselves, in relating the
very same facts; with a great many other difficulties, which
deserve a clear solution from any capable person.

I have said the ancient heretics asserted that the present gospels
were forgeries. As an example of this, take the following, from the
works of Faustus, quoted by Augustine, contra Faustum Lib. 32, c.
2. "You think, (says Faustus to his adversaries,) that of all the
books in the world the Testament of the Son only, could not be
corrupted; that it alone contains nothing which ought to be
disallowed; especially when it appears, that it was not written by
the apostles, but a long time after them, by certain obscure persons,
who, lest no credit should be given to the stories they told of what
they could not know, did prefix, to their writings, the names of the
apostles, and partly of those who succeeded the apostles, affirming,
that what they wrote themselves, was written by these. Wherein
they seem to me to have been the more heinously injurious to the
disciples of Christ, by attributing to them what they wrote
themselves so dissonant and repugnant; and that they pretended to
write those gospels under their names, which are so full of
mistakes, of contradictory relations and opinions, that they are
neither coherent with themselves, nor consistent with one another.
What is this, therefore, but to throw a calumny on good men, and
to fix the accusation of discord on the unanimous society of
Christ's disciples."

ADDENDA.
There is, in the Gospel ascribed to John, a passage, quoted as a
prophecy, which, as it has been looked on as a proof text, ought to have
been mentioned in the 7th chapter. It is this. The evangelist (John xix.
23) says, "Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his
garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his
coat--now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They
said, therefore, among themselves, ' Let us not rend it, but cast lots
for it'; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, 'They
parted my raiment among them and for my vesture they did cast lots.'
"Now, however plausible this prophesy may appear, it is one of the most
impudent