Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/22

xviii well to note that the books which Toland instances, as quoted in the way he describes, are those which bear the names of Barnabas, Hermas, Polycarp, Clement (to the Corinthians), and Ignatius (seven epistles). We now call these the Apostolical Fathers, and, whether spurious or genuine, nobody classes them with the Apocrypha.

It is very curious, that while the views of Wake and Whiston, and the opinions ascribed to Toland, were repudiated by the vast majority of sober-minded people, they had their followers among the prejudiced, the credulous, and the ignorant. Toland's alleged opinions were eagerly reproduced upon the continent. But earnest men arose to investigate the whole matter. The English Dissenter, Jeremiah Jones, was the first to publish in his own language, and side by side with the originals, all that he could find of the false Gospels. His book on the Canon is still of real value, although, as a whole, not fitted for the present age. A more conscientious and painstaking editor never took pen in hand. As the result of his investigations he maintains,—"That, for the most part, the