the Greeks for pretending that neither Juno nor Minerva nor Jupiter were what those imagin'd who built Temples and Altars to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nay so far went this last Author in his Allegories as to turn all the Trojan and Graecian Hero's into mere Fictions And to make Hector and Achilles and Agamemnon and even Helena her self nothing less than what one would think they were and what the common People ignorantly imagin'd them to be 33. AND for the Influence which this had upon the Ancient Fathers who from Philosophers became Christians the Writings both of Justin Martyr and Clemens Alexandrinus sufficiently shew And if we may believe Porphery an Enemy in the Case of Origen he tells us in the same place in which he complains of him For turning those things that were clearly deliver'd by Moses into Mystical Significations not only that he did this in Imitation of the Graecians but that it was his frequent Conversation with Numenius and Cronius Moderatus Nichomachus and Others among the Pythagoreans and with Chaeremon and Cornutus among the Stoics that he had learnt his Allegorical way of Expounding the Holy Scriptures and applied that to his Religion which they were wont to do to their Superstition 34. FROM all which it appears that this way of Writing in Matters of Religion was in those days generally used not only among the Jews but among the Wiser and more Philosophical of the Gentiles too And from both came to be almost universally practised among the Primitive Christians Which being so we ought to be far from censuring of St. Barnabas for his mystical Application of what God prescribed to the Jews in the Old Testament to the Spiritual Accomplishment of it in the New Much less should we ever the more call in question either the Truth or Credit of his Epistle upon this account 35. HAVING said thus much either in Vindication of the Allegorical Expositions of this Epistle or at least by way of Apology for them I shall add but little more concerning the Epistle it self I have before observed as to the Time of its Writing that it was somewhat after the Destruction of Jerusalem and as we may conjecture from the Subject of it for Title at present it has none nor do's it appear that ever it had any was address'd to the Jews to draw them off from the Letter of the Law to a Spiritual Understanding of it and by that means dispose them to embrace the Gospel Whether he had besides this a farther Design in it as Dr. Hammond supposes to confute the Errours of the Gnostick Hereticks and to prevent the Jewish Converts from falling into them it is not certain but may from the chief Points insisted upon by him be probably enough supposed If any one shall think it strange that disputing against the Jews for the Truth of the Gospel he should not have urged any of those Passages relating to the Messiah which seem to us the most apposite to such a purpose Such as the Oracle of Jacob concerning the Time that Shiloh was to come the LXX Weeks of Daniel the Prophecies of Haggai and Malachi of his coming while the Second Temple stood and which was now destroyed when he wrote this Epistle and the like Monsieur le Moyne will give him a ready Answer viz. that these Passages relate chiefly to the Time of Christ's appearing and that this was no Controversie in those days the Jews not only confessing it but being ready at every turn through this Persuasion to set up some or other for their Messiah to their Shame and Confusion It was therefore then but little necessary to use those Arguments against them which now appear to be the most proper and convincing since the State of the Question is alter'd and the Jews either deny that their Messiah is come or that it was necessary for him to have come about that time that our Saviour Christ appeared in the Flesh. 36. BUT tho' the chief Design of this Epistle was to convince the Jews of the Truth of our Religion yet are there not wanting in the latter part of it many excellent Rules to render it still very useful to the Pious Reader Indeed some have doubted whether this did originally belong to this Epistle or whether it has not since been added to it But seeing we find this part quoted by the Fathers as belonging to St. Barnabas no less than the other and that the Measure assign'd to it in the ancient Stichometries can hardly be well accounted for without it I do not see but that we ought to conclude that our Author did divide his Epistle into the two Parts in which we now have it and that this latter aswell as the former was written by him 37. AS for the Translation which I have here given of it I have made it up out of what remains of the Original Greek and of the Old Latin Version and of each of which tho' a Part be lost yet it has so fallen out that between them we not only have the whole Epistle but that too free of those Interpolations which Vossius tells us some had endeavour'd to make in this as well as in Ignatius's Epistles In both I have endeavour'd to attain to the Sense of my Author and to make him as plain and easie as I was able If in any thing I shall have chanced to mistake him I have only this to say for my self that he must be better acquainted with the Road than I pretend to be who will undertake to travel so long a Journey in the dark and never to miss his way CHAP. VIII Of the Shepherd of St. Hermas and of the Second Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians That the Hermas mention'd by St. Paul Rom. xvi 14 was the Author of that Book which is here subjoyn'd under his Name There is little remaining of his Life more than what is taken out of his own Book Of his Death Uncertain whether he died a Martyr The Ancient Fathers divided in their Opinions of this Book Nor are our later Criticks less That there are many useful things in it Of the Second Epistle of St. Clement That it is not of equal Reputation with the Former By some deny'd to be St. Clements It is most probable that it was written by St. Clement and has many excellent things and worthy of that Holy Man in it These two Pieces now the first time translated into our own Language 1. THERE is not a greater Difference between the Learned Men of the present Times concerning the Epistle of St. Barnabas than there was among the Ancient Fathers heretofore concerning the Authority of that Book which next follows under the Name of Hermas Who this Hermas was what he did and what he suffer'd for the Faiths sake is in great measure unknown to us That there was one of that Name at Rome when St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Church there his Remembrance of him Rom.
xvi 14 will not suffer us to doubt Nor is it improbable but that it was the same Hermas who afterwards wrote this Book And who appears not only still to have continued his Relation to the Church of Rome but to have written at such a time as may well agree to one of St. Paul's Acquaintance The former of these may be collected from his Second Vision which he seems to have had at the same time that Clement was Bishop of Rome and to whom therefore he is commanded to carry a Copy of it And for the latter if the Conjectures of two of our Greatest Criticks may be allow'd in applying the Great Affliction of which he speaks in another of his Visions to the Destruction of Jerusalem then at hand it is evident that this Book must have been written within XL. Years after the Death of Christ and by consequence by some Author who lived at the very time that the Hermas of whom St. Paul speaks most certainly did 2. HENCE Origen in his Homily upon that place of St. Paul before mentioned delivers it as his Opinion that it was the Hermas there spoken of who wrote this Book But Eusebius do's more He tells us that it was the received Opinion in those days that it was composed by him And that it continued to be so in the Age after St. Hierome witnesses who speaks yet more positively than Eusebius to that purpose And from all which we may conclude what is to be judg'd of that Mistake which our latter Writers have fallen into by their too credulous following the Author of the Poem against Marcion under the Name of Tertullian viz. that it was written by Hermes Brother to Pope Pius and in which not only the Authors of the Pontifical ascribed to Pope Damascus and of the pretended Decretal Epistles of the ancient Bishops of Rome but the Martyrologists of the Middle Ages Bede Ado c. have generally been involved 3. IT is true Cardinal Baronius has endeavour'd to make up this Difference by supposing that the Hermes spoken of by St. Paul was Brother to Pope Pius and so all Parties may be in the right But besides that this Book was written by Hermas not the Hermes of whom St. Paul there speaks the difference of the Time renders it altogether incredible that a Person of some considerable Age at St. Paul's writing his Epistle should have lived so long as that Pope's Brother is said to have done Whom the Cardinal himself observes to have been living CLXIV Years after Christ that is to say CVII Years after the writing of St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans And this his Epitomator Spondanus was aware of And therefore tho' he seems to have allow'd of the Conjecture yet could not chuse but add this Reflection of his own upon it that according to this reckoning Hermas must have been CXXX Years old when he died and in all probability a great deal more 4. WHAT the Condition of this Hermas was before his Conversion we cannot tell but that he was a Man of some Consideration we may conclude from what we read of him in his Third Vision Where he is said to have been formerly unprofitable to the LORD upon the account of those Riches which after he became a Christian he seems to have dispensed in Works of Charity and Beneficence 5. NOR have we any more knowledg how he was converted than what his Condition was before It is probable from several Passages in his Book that he was brought over to Christianity himself before his Family who continued yet in the practice of many and great Impieties During this while Hermas was not only very kind to them but seems to have been so indulgent towards them as to permit them rather to go on in their Sins than he would take any rough Measures with them to draw them off from them 6. BUT this was not all he not only patiently bore with them but was himself disturb'd with many anxious Cares to supply them in their Extravagances and often times did not behave himself so well as he ought upon that account But however being of an honest and upright Disposition and having a great Sincerity in his Religion it pleased God at last not only to convince him of his Faults in thus neglecting his Family but to give them Grace to hearken to his Admonitions and to embrace at once both the Christian Faith and a Practice also suitable thereunto 7. WHAT he did after this we have no account but that he lived a very strict Life we may reasonably conjecture in that it pleased God to vouchsafe such extraordinary Revelations to him and to employ him in several Messages to his Church both to correct their Manners and to warn them of the Tryals that were about to come upon them 8. THIS was so singular a Grace even in those Times of Miracles that we find some other Christians not so humble as they ought to be became Enemies to him upon the account of them However this did not hinder but that God still continu'd to make use of his Ministry in admonishing Sinners and he as readily and faithfully went on both in warning them of their danger and in exhorting them to repent and save their Souls 9. THIS then was the Business of this Holy Man in which he spent his Life and if we may believe the Roman Martyrologie his Death was not unsuitable to it Where we read that being illustrious for his Miracles he at last offer'd himself a worthy Sacrifice unto God But upon what Grounds this is establish'd Baronius himself could not tell us Insomuch that in his Annals he durst not once mention the manner of his Death but is content to say That having undergone many Labours and Troubles in the time of the Persecution under Aurelius and that too without any Authority he at last rested in the LORD July XXVI and which is therefore observed in Commemoration of him And here is indeed a pleasant Mistake and worthy the Roman Martyrologie For this Author from the Book of which we are now discoursing being sometimes called by the Title of Pastor or Shepherd the Martyrologist has very gravely divided the good Man into two Saints And they observe the Memorial of Hermas May IX th and of Pastor July XXVI th Unless we shall rather say that this was indeed the Cardinal's Blunder and the Martyrologie in the right to make two distinct Persons of St. Hermas rembembred by St. Paul and the Brother of Pope Pius to whom the Passages mention'd July XXVI do manifestly belong And erred only in applying the Character of Pastor to the latter which with the Treatise of which we are now discoursing ought as the Cardinal has truly observed to have been ascribed to the former 10. BUT not to insist any longer on the Author of this Book As for the Work it self we find both the Ancient Fathers and the Learned Men of our own Times not a little divided in
their Judgments concerning it Some there are and those the nearest to the time when this Book was written that treat it almost with the same Respect that they would do the Canonical Scriptures Irenaeus quotes it under the very Name of the Scripture Origen tho' he sometimes moderates his Opinion of it upon the account of some who did not it seems pay the same Respect with himself to it yet speaking of Hermas being the Author of this Book in his Comments on the Epistle to the Romans gives us this Character of it That He thought it to be a most useful Writing and was as he believed Divinely Inspired Eusebius tells us that tho' being doubted of by Some it was not esteem'd Canonical yet was it by Others judged a most necessary Book and as such read publickly in the Churches And St. Hierom having in like manner observed that it was read in some Churches makes this Remark upon it That it was indeed a very profitable Book and whose Testimony was often quoted by the Greek Fathers Athanasius places it in the same rank with the Books of Scripture and calls it a most useful Treatise And in another place tells us That tho' it was not strictly Canonical yet was it reckon'd among those Books which the Fathers appointed to be read to such as were to be instructed in the Faith and desired to be directed in the Way of Piety 11. HENCE we may observe as a farther Evidence of that Respect which was paid to this Book heretofore that it was not only openly read in the Churches but in some of the most ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament is joyned together with the other Books of the Holy Scriptures An Instance of this Cotelerius offers us in that of the Monastry of St. Germans in France in which it is continued on at the End of St. Paul's Epistles And in several of the Old Stichometries it is put in the same Catalogue with the Inspired Writings As may be seen in that which the same Author has published out of a Manuscript in the King's Library in his Observations upon St. Barnabas and in which St. Barnabas's Epistle is placed immediately before the Revelations as the Acts of the Apostles and Hermas's Shepherd are immediately after it 12. AND yet after all this we find this same Book not only doubted of by Others among the Ancient Fathers but slighted even by some of those who upon other Occasions have spoken thus highly in its Favour Thus St. Jerome in his Comments Exposes the Folly of that Apochryphal Book as he calls it which in his Catalogue of Writers he had so highly applauded Tertullian who spake if not honourably yet calmly of it whilst a Catholick being become Montanist rejected it even with Scorn And most of the other Fathers who have spoken the highest of it themselves yet plainly enough insinuate that there were those who did not put the same Value upon it Thus Origen mentions some who not only deny'd but despis'd its Authority And Cassian having made use of it in the Point of Free-Will Prosper without more ado rejected it as a Testimony of no Value And what the Judgment of the Latter Ages was as to this matter especially after Pope Gelasius had ranked it among the Apochryphal Books may be seen at large in the Observations of Antonius Augustinus upon that Decree 13. HOW far this has influenced the Learned Men of our present Times in their Censures upon this Work is evident from what many on all sides have freely spoken concerning it Who not only deny it to have been written by Hermas the Companion of St. Paul but utterly cast it off as a Piece of no Worth but rather full of Error and Folly Thus Baronius himself tho' he delivers not his own Judgment concerning it yet plainly enough shews that he ran in with the severest Censures of the Ancients against it And in effect charges it with favouring the Arrians tho' upon a mistaken Authority of St. Athanasius and which by no means proves any such Errour to be in it But Cardinal Bellarmine is more free He tells us that it has many hurtful things in it and particularly that it favours the Novatian Heresie which yet I think a very little Equity in interpreting of some Passages that look that way by others that are directly contrary thereunto would serve to acquit it of Others are yet more severe They censure it as full of Heresies and Fables Tho' this Labbe would be thought to excuse by telling us that they have been foisted into it by some later Interpolations and ought not to be imputed to Hermas the Author of this Book 14. NOR have many of those of the Reform'd Churches been any whit more favourable in their Censures of the present Treatise But then as the Chiefest of the most Ancient Fathers heretofore tho' they admitted it not into the Canon of Holy Scripture yet otherwise paid a very great Deference to it so the more moderate part of the Learned Men of our present Times esteem it as a Piece worthy of all Respect and clear of those Faults which are too lightly charged by some Persons upon it Thus Petavius none of the most favourable Critics upon the Ancient Fathers yet acknowledges as to the present Book that it was never censured by any of the Ancients as guilty of any false Doctrine or Heresie and especially as to the Point of the Holy Trinity Cotelerius one of the latest Editors of it esteems it as an Ecclesiastical Work of good note and a great Defence of the Catholick Faith against the Errors of Montanism Whose Judgment is not only follow'd by their late Historian Natalis Alexander but is made good too in the Defence of it against those Objections which some have brought to lessen its Reputation And for those of our own Communion I shall mention only two but They such as will serve instead of many to all judicious Persons who have at large justified it against the chief of those Exceptions that have been taken at it the One the most Excellent Bishop Pearson in his Vindication of St. Ignatius the Other the Learned Dr. Bull in his Defence of the Nicene Faith in the Point of our Blessed Saviour's Divinity and which he largely shews our present Author to have been far from doing any Prejudice unto 15. SUCH then have been the different Judgments of Learned Men both heretofore and in our present Times concerning this Book It would be too great a Presumption for me to pretend to determine any thing as to this matter and having subjoyn'd the Work it self in our common Language every one may be able to satisfie himself what Value he ought to put upon it That there are many useful things to be found in it but especially in the Second and I think the best part of it cannot be deny'd And for the other Two it must be considered that tho' such Visions as we there read of being
Title of Martyr to him 16. BUT whatever were the manner of St. Barnabas's Death yet famous is the Story of the Invention of his Reliques deliver'd by the same Monk and who as Baronius tells us lived at the same time under Zeno the Emperour and confirm'd by the concurrent Testimonies of Theodorus Nicephorus Cedrenus Sigebert Marianus Scotus and others With what Ceremony this was perform'd and how this Blessed Saint appear'd twice to Anthemius then Bishop of Salamis in order to the Discovery of his own Reliques and how the Emperour commanded a stately Church to be built over the Place of his Burial I shall leave it to those who are fond of such Stories to read at large in Baronius and the Monk whom I before mentioned It will be of more concern to take notice that Nilus Doxapater tells us that this very thing was the Ground of the Cyprian Privileges Where speaking of certain Provinces that depended not upon any of the Greater Patriarchats he instances first of all in Cyprus Which says he continues free and is subject to none of the Patriarchs because of the Apostle Barnabas being found in it And the same is the Account which Nicephorus also gives us of it and which was assign'd before both in the Notitia ascrib'd to Leo as I find it quoted by Monsieur le Moyne in his Preface to his late Collection of several ancient Pieces relating to Ecclesiastical Antiquity 17. TOGETHER with his Body was found says Alexander the Gospel of St. Matthew written in the Hebrew Tongue lying upon his Breast but Nilus says that of his Kinsman S. Mark Which of the two it was or whether any thing of all this were more than a mere Story contriv'd by Anthemius to get the better of Peter Patriarch of Antioch I shall not undertake to determine It is enough that we are assured that by this means he not only preserved his Priviledges against Peter but got his See confirm'd by the Emperour as an Independent See which was also afterwards again done by Justinian at the Instigation of the Empress Theodora who was her self a Cyprian 18. BUT to return to that which is more properly the Business of these Reflections It do's not appear that St. Barnabas left any more in Writing than the Epistle I have here subjoyn'd Indeed there were some heretofore who thought that the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by him Tertullian confidently quotes it as his Nor do's St. Hierome censure him for it but leaves it as a doubt whether it should be ascribed to him or to St. Luke St. Clement or St. Paul tho' he seems rather to incline to St. Paul As for the present Epistle I do not know that it is deny'd by any of the Ancients to have been written by St. Barnabas Clemens Alexandrinus both mentions and commends it as his Origen calls it The Catholick Epistle of Barnabas Eusebius and St. Jerome tho' they place it among the Apochryphal Books that is to say among such as were of doubtful Authority and not admitted into the Canon of the Church for so Valesius shews we are there to understand them yet make no question but that Barnabas was the Author of it any more than that the Epistles of St. James St. Jude the Second Epistle of St. Peter and the Second and Third of St. John together with his Revelations which Eusebius places in the same rank were written by those whose Names they bear 19. WHICH being so I cannot but wonder at some in our own Times who upon such weak Grounds peremptorily pronounce it to be none of St. Barnabas's which says our Learned Bishop Pearson none of all the Ancients pretended to doubt of And of this Cotelerius seems to have been sensible Who tho' he did not care to ascribe it to the Blessed Evangelist of whom we are now discoursing yet was forced to suppose that some other Barnabas wrote it and without which he saw there could be no way of answering the concurrent Verdict of all Antiquity which has universally agreed in Barnabas as the Author of it But now who this Other Barnabas was or that in those Times there was any such Person he pretends not to tell us and they who ascribe it to Barnabas expresly speak of him as the same of whom I have hitherto been discoursing 20. BUT of all Others most unaccountable is the Fancy of Monsieur le Moyne concerning the Author of this Epistle He had observed that in several Manuscripts it was immediately continued on with that of St. Polycarp And from this Ignorance or Negligence of a few Transcribers has this Learned Man concluded the two Epistles to have been both written by St. Polycarp in which as he had none to go before him so I believe he will scarcely meet with any to follow him 21. NOR are the Arguments which they bring against the Authority of it of such Moment as to overthrow the constant Testimonies of the Ancients on its behalf They tell us first that it is evident from the XVI th Chapter of this Epistle that it was written after the Destruction of Jerusalem But why may not Barnabas have been then living as well as we are sure St. John and several others of the Companions of the Apostles were And if he may have been living after it why shall not we suppose that he was as well as they that he was not Seeing it does not appear from the Testimony of any Antient Writers when he died 22. BUT 2 dly They argue yet farther against it For if this say they be the Genuine Epistle of St. Barnabas how comes it to pass that it is not received as Canonical Certainly had the Primitive Christians believed it to have been written by such a Man they would without Controversie have plac'd it among the sacred Writings and not have censured it as of doubtful Authority This is indeed a very specious Pretence but which being a little examined will be found to have no strength in it It being certain that the Primitive Fathers did own this for St. Barnabas's Epistle and yet not receive it into their Canon and therefore that it do's not follow that had they believed it to have been his they must have esteem'd it Canonical 23. WHAT Rules they had or by what Measure they proceeded in those First Times in judging of the Canonical Scriptures of the New Testament it is not necessary for me here to enquire It is enough that we know what Books the Church did at last agree in as coming under that Character And for the rest as we cannot doubt but that there was a due care taken in examining into a matter of such Importance and that those Primitive Fathers did not without very good reason distinguish what were written by Divine Inspiration from what were not So we are very sure that all was not admitted by them into the rank of Canonical Scripture that was written by any Apostolical Man and therefore that it
Offices were by the Spirit enabled to make of them So 3 dly If we look to those Accounts which still remain to us of them they will plainly shew us that they were endued and that in a very singular manner with this Power and Gift of the Blessed Spirit 19. OF Barnabas the Holy Scripture it self bears Witness that He was a good Man full of the Holy Ghost and of Faith Acts xi 24 Hermas is another of whom St. Paul himself makes mention Rom. xvi 14 as an early Convert to Christianity And what extraordinary Revelations he had and how he foretold the Troubles that were to come upon the Church his following Visions sufficiently declare 20 CLEMENT is not only spoken of by the same Apostle but with this advantageous Character too that he was the Fellow-Labourer of that great Man and had his Name written in the Book of Life Phil. iv 3 And when we shall consider to how much lesser and worser Men these Gifts were usually communicated at that time we can hardly think that so excellent a Man and the Companion of so great an Apostle employed first in the planting of the Gospel with him and then set to govern one of the most considerable Churches in the World should have been destitute of it 21. AS for St. Ignatius I have before observed that he had this Gift and by the help of it warned the Philadelphians against falling into those Divisions which he fore-saw were about to rise up amonst them 22. POLYCARP not only Prophecy'd of his own Death but spake often times of things that were to come And has this Witness from the whole Church of Smyrna that nothing of all that he foretold ever failed of coming to pass according to his Prediction 23. IT remains then that the Holy Men whose Writings are here subjoyn'd were not only instructed by such as were Inspir'd but were themselves Inspir'd too And therefore we must conclude that they have not only not mistaken the Mind of the Apostles in what they deliver to us as the Gospel of Christ but were not capable of doing of it By consequence that we ought to look upon their Writings tho' not of equal Authority with those which we call in a singular manner The Holy Scriptures because neither were the Authors of them called in so extraordinary a way to the writing of them nor endued with so eminent a Portion of the Gifts of the Blessed Spirit for the doing of it Nor have their Writings been judg'd by the common Consent of the Church in those inspir'd Ages of it when they were so much better qualified than we are now to judge of the Divine Authority of those kind of Writings to be of equal Dignity with those of the Apostles and Evangelists yet worthy of a much greater Respect than any Composures that have been made since however Men may seem to have afterwards written with more Art and to have shewn a much greater Stock of humane Learning than what is to be found not only in the following Pieces but even in the Sacred Books of the New Testament it self 24. I SHALL add but One Consideration more the better to shew the true Deference that ought to be paid to the Treatises here collected and that is Sixthly That they were not only written by such Men as I have said instructed by the Apostles and judg'd worthy by them both for their Knowledg and their Integrity to govern some of the most eminent Churches in the World and lastly endued with the extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost and upon all these Accounts to be much respected by us But were moreover received by the Church in those First Ages as Pieces of a very great value which could not be mistaken in its Judgment of them 25. THE Epistle of St. Clement was a long time read publickly with the Other Scriptures in the Congregations of the Faithful made a part of their Bible and was numbred among the Sacred Writings however finally separated from them And not only the Apostolical Canons but our most ancient Alexandrian Manuscript gives the same place to the Second that it do's to the First of them And Epiphanius after both tells us that they were both of them wont to be read in the Church in his Time 26. THE Epistle of St. Polycarp with that of the Church of Smyrna were not only very highly approved of by particular Persons but like those of St. Clement were read publickly too in the Assemblies of the Faithful And for those of Ignatius besides that we find a mighty Value put upon them by the Christians of those Times they are sealed to us by this Character of St. Polycarp That they are such Epistles by which we may be greatly profited For says he They treat of Faith and Patience and of all things that pertain to Edification in the LORD 27. THE Epistle of Barnabas is not only quoted with great Honour by those of the next Age to him but as I have before shewn is expresly called Catholick and Canonical And in the ancient Stichometry of Cotelerius we find it placed the very next to the Epistle of St. Jude and no difference put between the Authority of the One and of the Other 28. AND for the Book of Hermas both Eusebius and St. Jerome tell us that it was also used to be read in the Churches In the same Stichometry I before mentioned it is placed in the very next Rank to the Acts of the Holy Apostles And in some of the most ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament we find it written in the same Volume with the Books of the Apostles and Evangelists as if it had been esteem'd of the same Value and Authority with them 29. SO that now then we must either say that the Church in those days was so little careful of what was taught in it as to allow such Books to be publickly read in its Congregations the Doctrine whereof it did not approve Or we must confess that the following Pieces are deliver'd to us not only by the Learned Men of the First Ages of the Church but by the whole Body of the Faithful as containing the pure Doctrine of Christ and must be look'd upon to have nothing in them but what was then thought worthy of all Acceptation 30. NOW how much this adds to the Authority of these Discourses may easily be concluded from what I have before observed For since it is certain that in those Times the Extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were bestowed not only upon the Bishops and Pastors of the Church tho' upon them in a more eminent degree but also upon a great many of the common Christians too Since One particular Design of these Gifts was for the Discerning of Prophecies to judg of what was proposed by any to the Church or written for the Use and Benefit of it We cannot doubt but what was universally approved of and allow'd not by a few Learned Men but by
Authority But then as Du Pin well observes it is certain that the Ancients knew nothing of it nor are the Acts we now have quoted by any before the time of Etherius before-mentioned And yet how they could have escaped the Search of the Primitive Fathers had they been extant in their days it is hard to imagin 34. BUT much less is the Credit that ought to be given to the pretended Works of Dionysius the Areopagite Which as Alexander confesses two very great Criticks of his own Communion to have deny'd to have been written by that Holy Man so has a third very lately given such Reasons to shew that the Writings now extant under his Name could not have been composed by him as ought to satisfie every considering Man of their Imposture For not to say any thing of what occurs every where in those Discourses utterly disagreeable to the State of the Church in the time that that Dionysius lived Can it be imagin'd that had such considerable Books as these been written by him none of the Ancients of the first IV Centuries should have heard any thing of them Or shall we say that they did know of them as well as the Fathers that lived after and yet made no mention of them tho' they had so often occasion to have done it as Eusebius and St. Jerome not to name any Others had 35. IN short one of the first times that we hear of them is in the Dispute between the Severians and Catholicks about the Year D. XXX.II When the Former produced them in favour of their Errours and the Latter rejected them as Books utterly unknown to all Antiquity and therefore not worthy to be received by them 36. IT is therefore much to be wondered that after so many Arguments as have been brought to prove how little Right these Treatises have to such a Primitive Antiquity nevertheless not only Natalis Alexander but a Man of much better Judgment I mean Emanuel Schelstrat the late Learned Keeper of the Vatican Library should still undertake the Defence of them When they were written or by what Author is very uncertain But as Bishop Pearson supposes them to have been first set forth about the latter end of Eusebius's Life so Dr. Cave conjectures that the Elder Apollinarius may very probably have been the Author of them Others there are who place them yet later and suspect Pope Gregory the Great to have had a hand in the Forgery And indeed the Arguments which our very Learned Mr. Dodwell brings to prove that they were originally written by one of the Roman Church are not without their just Weight But whatever becomes of this thus much is certain that these Books were not written before the middle of the IV th Century and therefore are without the Compass of the present Undertaking 37. AND now having taken such a View as was necessary for the present Design of all those other Pieces which have been obtruded upon the World for Apostolical Writings besides what is either here collected or has been before publish'd in the Sacred Books of the New Testament I suppose I may with good Grounds conclude that the little I have now put together is all that can with any Certainty be depended upon of the most Primitive Fathers And therefore that from these next to the Holy Scriptures we must be content to draw the best Account we can of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church for the first Hundred Years after the Death of Christ. CHAP. X. Of the Authority of the following Treatises and the Deference that ought to be paid to them upon the account of it This is shewn from the following Considerations 1st That the Authors of them were Contemporary with the Apostles and instructed by them 2dly They were Men of an eminent Character in the Church and therefore to be sure such as could not be ignorant of what was taught in it 3dly They were very careful to preserve the Doctrine of Christ in its Purity and to oppose such as went about to corrupt it 4thly They were Men not only of a perfect Piety but of great Courage and Constancy and therefore such as cannot be suspected to have had any Design to prevaricate in this Matter 5thly They were endued with a large Portion of the Holy Spirit and as such could hardly err in what they deliver'd as the Gospel of Christ. And 6thly Their Writings were approved by the Church in those days which could not be mistaken in its Approbation of them BUT Secondly and to proceed yet farther The following Collection pretends to a just Esteem not only upon the account of its Perfection as it is an Entire Collection of what remains to us of the Apostolical Fathers but yet much more from the Respect that is due to the Authors themselves whose Writings are here put together 2. IF First we consider them as the Contemporaries of the Holy Apostles Some of them bred up under our Saviour Christ himself and the rest instructed by those Great Men whom he commissioned to go forth and preach to all the World and endued with an extraordinary Assistance of his Blessed Spirit for the doing of it We cannot doubt but that what they deliver to us must be without Controversie the pure Doctrine of the Gospel What Christ and his Apostles taught and what they had themselves received from their own Mouths This is the least Deference we can pay to them to look upon them as faithful Deliverers of the Doctrine and Practice of the Church in those most early Times When Heresies were not as yet so openly broke out in it Nor the true Faith so dangerously corrupted with the Mixture of those erroneous Opinions which afterwards more fatally infected the Minds of Men and divided the Church into so many Parties and Factions So that here then we may read with Security and let me add with Respect too And not doubt but what these Holy Men deliver to us is as certainly the true Doctrine of Christ as if we had received it like them from our Saviour and his Apostles 3. BUT Secondly The Authors of the following Pieces had not only the Advantage of living in the Apostolical Times and of hearing the Holy Apostles and conversing with them but they were of a very Eminent Character in the Church too Men raised up to the highest pitch of Honour and Authority in some of the most famous Churches of the World Chosen by the Apostles to preside in their own proper Sees at Rome at Antioch at Smyrna One of them set apart by the express Command of the Holy Ghost to be the Companion of the Great St. Paul in his Work of the Ministry and the rest for the most part commended for their rare Endowments in the inspired Writings of the Holy Scriptures delivered to us And therefore we may be sure that such Men as these must needs have been very carefully instructed in the Mystery of the Gospel and have had