preached the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to a whole
nation of men and women that had no heads, but had their eyes in their
bosoms; and in countries still more southerly he preached to a nation
among whom each individual had but one eye, and that situate in the
middle of the forehead" ("Syntagma," p. 33, as quoted in "Diegesis," p.
257).

Eusebius tells us of a man, named Sanctus, who was tortured until his
body "was one continued wound, mangled and shrivelled, that had entirely
lost the form of man;" and, when the tormentors began again on the same
day, he "recovered the former shape and habit of his limbs" ("Eccles.
Hist," bk. v., chap. i.). He then was sent to the amphitheatre, passing
down the lane of scourgers, was dragged about and lacerated by the wild
beast, roasted in an iron chair, and after this was "at last
dispatched!" Other accounts, such as that of a man scourged till his
bones were "bared of the flesh," and then slowly tortured, are given as
history, as though a man in that condition would not speedily bleed to
death. But it is useless to give more of these foolish stories, which
weary us as we toil through the writings of the early Church. Well may
Mosheim say that the "Apostolic Fathers, and the other writers, who, in
the infancy of the Church, employed their pens in the cause of
Christianity, were neither remarkable for their learning nor their
eloquence" ("Eccles. Hist," p. 32). Thoroughly unreliable as they are,
they are useless as witnesses of supposed miraculous events; and, in
relating ordinary occurrences, they should not be depended upon in any
matter of importance, unless they be corroborated by more trustworthy
historians.

The last point Paley urges in support of his proposition is, that the
accounts contained in "the historical Books of the New Testament" are