56. But our writers,
we
shall be told
, have put forth these statements with false
effrontery; they have extolled
3354
small matters to an inordinate degree,
and have magnified trivial affairs with most pretentious
boastfulness. And
3355
would that all things could have been
reduced to writing,—both those which were done by Himself, and
those which were accomplished by His apostles with equal authority and
power. Such an assemblage of miracles, however, would make you
more incredulous; and perhaps you might be able to discover a passage
from which
3356
it would seem
very probable, both that additions were made to facts, and that
falsehoods were inserted in writings and commentaries. But in
nations which were unknown to the writers, and which themselves knew
not the use of letters, all that was done could not have been embraced
in the records or even have reached the ears of all men; or, if any
were committed to written and connected narrative, some insertions and
additions would have been made by the malevolence of the demons and of
men like to them, whose care and study it is to obstruct
3357
the progress
of this truth: there would have been some changes and mutilations
of words and of syllables, at once to mar the faith of the cautious and
to impair the moral effect of the deeds. But it will never avail
them that it be gathered from written testimony
only
who and
what Christ was; for His cause has been put on such a basis, that if
what we say be admitted to be true, He is by the confession of all
proved to have been God.
3354
According to Rigaltius the
ms.
reads
ista promiserunt in immensum
—“have put
forth (i.e., exaggerated) these things to an immense degree falsely,
small matters and trivial affairs have magnified,” etc.; while by
a later hand has been superscribed over
in immensum
, in ink of a
different colour,
extulere
—“have
extolled.”
3355
So the
ms.
, 1st ed., and Hildebrand,
while all others read
atqu-i
—“but.”
3356
So
LB., reading
quo
for the
ms.
quod.
3357
So
most edd., reading
intercip-ere
for the
ms.
intercipi
—“it is that the
progress be obstructed,” etc.