" [17:1]
Not a word of qualification or doubt is added to these extraordinary
statements, for a full criticism of which I must beg the reader to
be good enough to refer to _Supernatural Religion_, ii. pp. 41-54.
Setting aside here the important question as to what the "gospel"
of Basilides--to which Dr. Westcott gives the fanciful names of a
"Life of Christ," or "Philosophy of Christianity," without a shadow
of evidence--really was, it could scarcely be divined, for instance,
that the statement that Basilides "admitted the historic truth of
all the facts contained in the canonical gospels" rests solely upon
a sentence in the work attributed to Hippolytus, to the effect that,
after his generation, all things regarding the Saviour--according
to the _followers_ of Basilides--occurred in the same way as they
are written in the Gospels. Again, it could scarcely be supposed
by an ordinary reader that the assertion that Basilides used the
"canonical gospels"--there certainly were no "canonical" gospels
in his day--"as Scripture," that his testimony to our 'acknowledged'
books is comprehensive and clear, and that "in the few pages of
his writings which remain there are certain references" to those
gospels, which show "his method of quotation," is not based upon
any direct extracts from his writings, but solely upon passages
in an epitome by Hippolytus of the views of the school of Basilides,
not ascribed directly to Basilides himself, but introduced by a
mere indefinite [Greek: phesi].
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