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What is said of the Apocryphal Gospels which appeared in the early ages of the church?
“Several histories of his [Christ’s] life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders, were composed by persons whose intentions perhaps were not bad, but whose writings discovered the greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all; productions appeared which were imposed upon the world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy Apostles.”—Mosheim.
Is the above less true of the books we are reviewing? Are not these writings “full of pious frauds and fabulous wonders”? Do not these writings display “the greatest superstition and ignorance”? Have not these writings been “imposed upon the world by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy (?) Apostles”?
If some of these apocryphal Gospels had been accepted as canonical, and the canonical Gospels had been rejected as apocryphal, these canonical Gospels would appear as untruthful and foolish to Christians as the apocryphal Gospels do.