recorded to have raised three people—­a girl, a young man, and Lazarus; we will take their ages at ten, twenty, and thirty.  “Some of” those raised cannot be less than two out of the three; we will say the two youngest.  Then they were alive at the respectable ages of from 95-116, and from 105-126.  The first may be taken as just within the limits of possibility; the second as beyond them; but Quadratus talks in a wholesale fashion, which quite destroys his credibility, and we can lay but little stress on the carefulness or trustworthiness of a historian who speaks in such reckless words.  Added to this, we find no trace of this passage until Eusebius writes it in the fourth century, and it is well known that Eusebius was not too particular in his quotations, thinking that his duty was only to make out the best case he could.  He frankly says:  “We are totally unable to find even the bare vestiges of those who may have travelled the way before us; unless, perhaps, what is only presented in the slight intimations, which some in different ways have transmitted to us in certain partial narratives of the times in which they lived.... Whatsoever, therefore, we deem likely to be advantageous to the proposed subject we shall endeavour to reduce to a compact body” ("Eccles.  Hist.,” bk. i., chap. i).  Accordingly, he produces a full Church History out of materials which are only “slight intimations,” and carefully draws out in detail a path of which not “even the bare vestiges” are left.  Little wonder that he had to rely so much upon his imagination, when he had to build a church, and had no straws for his bricks.

Paley brings Justin Martyr (born about A.D. 103, died about A.D. 167) as his last authority—­as after his time the story may be taken as established—­and says:  “From Justin’s works, which are still extant, might be collected a tolerably complete account of Christ’s life, in all points agreeing with that which is delivered in our Scriptures; taken, indeed, in a great measure, from those Scriptures, but still proving that this account, and no other, was the account known and extant in that age” ("Evidences,” p. 77).  If “no other” account was extant, Justin must have largely drawn on his own imagination when he pretends to be quoting.  Jesus, according to Justin, is conceived “of the Word” ("Apol.,” i. 33), not of the Holy Ghost, the third person, the Holy Ghost being said to be identical with the Word; and he is thus conceived by himself.  He is born, not in Bethlehem in a stable, but in a “cave near the village,” because Joseph could find no lodging in Bethlehem ("Dial.” 78).  The magi come, not from “the East,” but from Arabia ("Dial.” 77).  Jesus works as a carpenter, making ploughs and yokes ("Dial.” 88).  The story of the baptism is very different ("Dial.” 88).  In the trial Jesus is set on the judgment seat, and tauntingly bidden to judge his accusers ("Apol.,” i. 35).  All the apostles deny him, and forsake him, after