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
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
no longer continu'd to these latter Ages may warrantably be despised in the Pretenders of the present days yet we cannot doubt but that at the time when this Book was written the extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost were very frequent And we need not question but that such Revelations too among the rest were communicated to Holy Men for the Benefit of the Church 16. BUT I shall not pursue this Subject any farther Nor will I add very much to what I have before said with relation to St. Clement and his First Epistle concerning that Part which still remains of a Second under his Name and which concludes the following Collection 17. THAT this Second Epistle was not of so great a Reputation among the Primitive Fathers as the foregoing Eusebius not only plainly tells us but gives us this Testimony of it That he could not find it quoted as the Other was by any of them But St. Jerome is more severe he represents it to us as rejected by them And Photius after him calls it a Spurious Piece And not to mention any more our most Reverend Bishop Usher not only concurs in the same Censure but offers several Arguments too in proof of it 18. AND yet when all is done it do's not appear but that St. Clement was indeed the Author of this as well as of the other Epistle before spoken of tho' it was not so much esteem'd nor by consequence so generally known to the Ancients as that In the Manuscript of St. Thecla we find this set forth under the same Title with the other And in all the other Catalogues of the Ancients wherever One is spoken of the Other is for the most part set together with it As may particularly be observed in the Apostolical Canons one of the most early Collections of this kind 19. NOR does Eusebius deny this Epistle to be St. Clement's but only says that it was not so celebrated as the Other And true it is we do not find it either so often or so expresly mention'd as that But yet if the Conjecture of Wendeline approved by a very Learned Man of our own Country may be admitted Eusebius himself will afford us an Instance of one who not only spake of it but spake of it as wont to be publickly read in the Church of Corinth For discoursing of the Epistles of Dionysius Bishop of that See he tells us that in One of them which he wrote to the Romans he took notice of St. Clement's Epistle in these Words Today have we kept the LORD 's Day with all Holiness in which we have read your Epistle as we shall always continue to read it for our Instruction together with the former written to us by Clement What that Epistle was that Dionysius here speaks of as written by the Church of Rome to that of Corinth and publickly read in the Congregation there it do's not appear nor can we give any account of it unless it was that which St. Clement wrote to them in the Name of the Church of Rome and which Eusebius tells us was publickly read in that Church in those days But then if this be so as I think it most likely that it is we must conclude that the Epistle of which we are now speaking was indeed the first written to them however called his Second Epistle and wont to be read together with that other which he sent in the Name of the Roman Church to them in their Assemblies 20. NOW that which yet more favours this Opinion is that it seems by many Arguments to appear that this Letter which he wrote in his own Name tho' as being sent from a particular Person and not in it self so considerable as the Other it was usually set after that which he wrote by the Order of the Church and in their Name to the Corinthians was yet indeed the first written And for being read in the Churches Epiphanius expresly tells us that this Epistle no less than the foregoing was in his time wont to be publickly read in the Congregation And tho' St. Jerome and Photius indeed speak but meanly of it in those places where they seem to deliver the Judgment of Eusebius rather than their own Opinion yet upon other Occasions they make no exception against the Authority of it but equally ascribe it to St. Clement with the Other of which there is no doubt 21. IT were an easie matter to shew that the same was the Opinion of the other Ecclesiastical Writers of those Times But this having been done at large by Wendeline first and since by Cotelerius and his perpetual Transcriber Natalis Alexander I shall forbear and conclude with this That it is an Epistle tho' not of equal Value with the Other yet of good use and which if it were not written by St. Clement as I make no doubt but it was has yet nothing in it that is in the least unworthy of him 22. AND now having said thus much concerning these two last Pieces and with which the present Collection is concluded I have but this to add That they are Both of them now first of all put into our own Language and presented to the perusal of the English Reader The Former from the Old Latin Version which is by some much complained of tho' by others as stifly defended The Latter from the Original Greek as it was publish'd by Mr. Patrick Young from the Alexandrian Manuscript the only Copy that for ought appears do's at this day remain of it 23. IF any one shall ask how it came to pass that our Learned Country-Man Mr. Burton when he set out the former Epistle of St. Clement in English did not subjoyn this to it the Answer which himself warrants us to return is this That taking what has been said by the Antients before mentioned in the strictest Sense he looked upon this Epistle as a Spurious Piece And which tho' it carried the Name of St. Clement was yet truly no more his than those Constitutions and Recognitions which are also publish'd under the same Name but are generally acknowledged to be none of his as in the prosecution of this Discourse I shall take occasion more particularly to shew 24. AS for the Epistle it self I have concluded it somewhat sooner than the Greek which yet remains of it do's But that which I have omitted being only an imperfect Piece of a Sentence and which would have made the Conclusion much more abrupt than it is now I chose rather to add what follow'd here than to continue it there And to make the Reader the better amends for this Liberty I have not only subjoyn'd what remains of St. Clement but have endeavour'd to make out the Sense of what is wanting in our Copy from the Other Clement who seems to have follow'd this Original FOR the LORD himself being asked by a certain Person when his Kingdom should come answer'd When Two shall be One and that which is without as that
The Genuine EPISTLES OF THE Apostolical Fathers S. BARNABAS S. IGNATIUS S. CLEMENT S. POLYCARP THE SHEPHERD of HERMAS And the Martyrdoms of St. Ignatius and St. Polycarp Written by Those who were present at their Sufferings Being together with the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament a compleat Collection of the most Primitive Antiquity for about CI Years after Christ. Translated and Publish'd with a large Preliminary Discourse relating to the several Treatises here put together By W. Wake D.D. Chapl. in Ordinary to their 〈◊〉 and Preacher to the Honorable Society of Grays-Inn LONDON Printed for Ric. Sare at Grays-Inn Gate next Holborn 1693. Imprimatur Apr. 11. 1693. Carolus Alston R.P.D. Hen. Episc. Lond. à sacris A CATALOGUE OF THE Several PIECES contain'd in this Book and the Order of them A Discourse concerning the Treatises here collected and the Authors of them PART I. The First Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians The Epistle of St. Polycarp to the Philippians The Genuine Epistles of St. Ignatius A Relation of the Martyrdom of St. Ignatius written by those who were present at his Sufferings The Epistle of the Church of Smyrna concerning the Martyrdom of St. Polycarp PART II. The Catholick Epistle of St. Barnabas The Shepherd of Hermas in Three Books The Remains of St. Clement's Second Epistle to the Corinthians An INDEX to both Parts A DISCOURSE CONCERNING The several Treatises contain'd in the following Collection and the Authors of them The INTRODUCTION 1. HAD I designed the following Collection either for the Benefit or Perusal of the learned World I should have needed to say but very little by way of Introduction to it The Editors of the several Treatises here put together having already observed so much upon each of them that it would I believe be difficult to discover I am sure be very needless to trouble the Reader with any more 2. BUT as it would be Ridiculous for me to pretend to have design'd a Translation for those who are able with much more Profit and Satisfaction to go to the Originals so being now to address my self to those especially who want that Ability I suppose it may not be amiss before I lead them to the Discourses themselves to give them some Account both of the Authors of the several Pieces I have here collected and of the Tracts themselves and of that Collection that is now the first time made of them in our own Tongue Tho' as to the first of these I shall say the less by reason of that excellent Account that has been already given of the most of them by our Pious and Learned Dr. Cave Whose Lives of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers with his other Admirable Discourse of Primitive Christianity I could heartily wish were in the hands of all the more judicious part of our English Readers 3. NOR may such an Account as I now propose to my self to give of the following Pieces be altogether useless to some even of the Learned themselves who wanting either the Opportunity of Collecting the several Authors necessary for such a search or leisure to examin them may not be unwilling to see that faithfully brought together under one short and general View which would have required some Time and Labour to have search'd out as it lay diffus'd in a Multitude of Writers out of which they must otherwise have gather'd it CHAP. II. Of the First Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians Of the Value which the Ancients put upon this Epistle Of St. Clement himself who was the Author of it That it was the same Clement of whom S. Paul speaks Phil. iv 3 Of his Conversion to Christianity When he became Bishop of Rome as also whether he suffer'd Martyrdom uncertain Of the Occasion of his Writing this Epistle and the two main Parts of it Of the Time when it was written That there is no reason to doubt but that the Epistle we now have was truly written by S. Clement The Objection of Tentzelius against it of no force How this Epistle was first published by Mr. Patrick Young and translated by Mr. Burton into English Of the present Edition of it 1. THE first Tract which begins this Collection and perhaps the most worthy too is that Admirable or as some of the Ancients have called it that wonderful Epistle of S. Clement to the Corinthians and which he wrote not in his own Name but in the Name of the whole Church of Rome to them An Epistle so highly esteem'd by the Primitive Church that we are told it was wont to be publickly read in the Assemblies of it And if we may credit one of the most ancient Collections of the Canon of Scripture was placed among the Sacred and Inspired Writings Nor is it any small Evidence of the Value which in those days was put upon this Epistle that in the only Copy which for ought we know at this day remains of it we find it to have been written in the same Volume with the Books of the New Testament And which seems to confirm what was before observed concerning it that it was heretofore wont to be read in the Congregations together with the Holy Scriptures of the Apostles and Evangelists 2. BUT of the Epistle it self I shall take occasion to speak more particularly by and by It will now be more proper to enquire a little into the Author of it and consider when and upon what occasion it was written by him 3. AND first for what concerns the Person who wrote this Epistle it is no small Commendation which the Holy Ghost by S. Paul has left us of him Phil. iv 3 Where the Apostle mentions him not only as his Fellow-Labourer in the Work of the Gospel but as one whose Name was written in the Book of Life A Character which if we will allow our Saviour to be the Judg far exceeds that of the highest Power and Dignity And who therefore when his Disciples began to rejoyce upon the account of that Authority which he had bestow'd upon them insomuch that even the Devils were subject unto them Luke x. 17 tho' he seem'd to allow that there was a just matter of Joy in such an extraordinary Power yet bade them not to Rejoyce so much in this that those Spirits were subject unto them but rather says he Rejoyce that your Names are written in the Book of Life 4. IT is indeed insinuated by a late very Learned Critick as if this were not that Clement of whom we are now discoursing and whose Epistle to the Corinthians I have here subjoyn'd But besides that he himself confesses that the Person of whom S. Paul there speaks was a Roman both Eusebius and Epiphanius and S. Hierome expresly tell us that the Clement there meant was the same that was afterwards Bishop of Rome Nor do we read of any Other to whom either the Character there mentioned of being the Fellow-Labourer of that Apostle or the Elogy given of having
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
which is within and the Male with the Female neither Male nor Female Now Two are One when we speak the Truth to each other and there is without Hypocrisie one Soul in two Bodies And that which is without as that which is within He means this he calls the Soul that which is within and the Body that which is without As therefore thy Body appears so let thy Soul be seen by its good Works And the Male with the Female neither Male nor Female He means this He calls our Anger the Male our Concupiscence the Female When therefore a Man is come to such a pass that he is subject neither to the One or Other of these both of which through the prevalence of Custom and an evil Education cloud and darken the Reason but rather having dispell'd the Mist arising from them and being full of Shame shall by Repentance have united both his Soul and Spirit in the Obedience of Reason then as Paul says there is in us neither Male nor Female CHAP. IX That the Pieces here put together are All that remain of the most Primitive and Apostolical Antiquity That there are several Other Treatises pretended to have been written within the compass of this Period But none such as truly come up to it Of the Epistle of our Saviour Christ to Abgarus and the Occasion of it That it is not probable that any such Letter was written by him The Epistles ascribed to the Virgin Mary spurious So is the Epistle pretended to have been written by St. Paul to the Laodiceans Of the Acts the Gospel the Preaching and Revelations of St. Peter Of the Liturgy attributed to St. Matthew And the Discourse said to have been written by him concerning the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Of the Liturgies ascribed to St. Peter St. Mark and St. James Of the Gospels attributed to several of the Apostles Of the Apostles Creed and the Canons called Apostolical Of the other Pieces under the Names of St. Clement and St. Ignatius And particularly of the Recognitions and Epitome of Clement Of the History of the Life Miracles and Assumption of St. John pretended to have been written by Prochorus One of the Seven Deacons Of the Histories of St. Peter and St. Paul ascribed to Linus Bishop of Rome Of the Lives of the Apostles attributed to Abdias Bishop of Babylon Of the Epistles of St. Martial Of the Passion of St. Andrew written by the Presbyters of Achaja Of the Works ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite That upon the whole the Pieces here put together are all that remain of the Apostolical Times after the Books of the Holy Scripture 1. AND now having said thus much concerning the several Pieces here put together and the Authors of them it is time to go on to the Other Part of this Discourse and consider what may be fit to be observed concerning them All together and as they are now first of all set forth in our own Language in the following Collection 2. NOW the first thing that may be fit to be here taken notice of is That the following Collection is truly what the Title pretends it to be A full and perfect Collection of all the Genuine Writings that remain to us of the Apostolical Fathers And carries on the Antiquity of the Church from the time of the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament to about an Hundred and Fifty Years after Christ. 3. TO make this the more evident it will be necessary for me to consider what those other Writings are which some have endeavoured to raise up into the Rank of Apostolical Antiquity and shew that they are indeed Writings either of no Credit nor Authority at all or at least not of such as they are falsly pretended to be And to the end I may proceed the more clearly in this Enquiry I will divide the several Pieces now to be examined into the Three following Ranks The First of Those which are Antecedent to any I have here collected as being pretended to have been written either by our Saviour Christ himself or by the Virgin Mary or by the Apostles The Second of such Other Tracts as are ascribed to some of those Fathers whose Genuine Remains I have here put together And the Third of such Pieces as are said to have been written by some Other Authors who lived in the Apostolical Times and wrote if we will believe some Men several Books much more considerable than any I have here collected 4. OF the first of these kinds is that pretended Letter of our Blessed Saviour to Abgarus King of Edessa a little City of Arabia a part of which Country was subject to him Now this may seem to be of so much the better Credit in that Eusebius tells us he had himself faithfully translated it out of the Syriac Language as he found it in the Archives of Edessa Nor was it very long after that Ephraem a Deacon of that Church made mention of this Communication between our Saviour and Abgarus as the Occasion of the first Conversion of that Place and exhorted his People upon that Account the rather to hold fast to their Holy Profession and to live worthy of it Evagrius who wrote about Two Hundred Years after this not only confirmed all that had been said by Both these but added from Procopius several other Circumstances unknown for ought appears to either of them And particularly that of the Impression which our Saviour had made of his Face upon a Napkin and sent to that Prince and which he tells us was of no small Advantage to them in the defence of their Town against Chosdroes King of Persia who by this means was hindred from taking of it 5. AND now since the Addition of this new Story to the old account of this Matter it is not to be wondred if the Patrons of Images among the Greeks from henceforth contended with all Earnestness for the Truth of both Insomuch that we find they instituted a particular Festival in Memory of it August the XVI th and transcribed at large the whole History of this Adventure into their Menaeon and recited it upon it 6. AND upon the same account I suppose it is that some of our late Authors tho' they do not care to assert the Truth of this Story are yet unwilling to deny all Credit to it Baronius reports both the Relation and the Epistle from Eusebius but will not answer for the Truth of either Spondanus delivers the same from the Cardinal that he had done from Eusebius and passes no Censure either One way or Other upon it Only in his Margent he observes that Gretser the Jesuit in his Discourse of Images c. had vindicated the Authority of our Saviour's Epistle to Abgarus from the Exceptions of Casaubon in his Exercitations upon Baronius against it Gerard Vossius in his Scholia upon the Testament of St. Ephraem contents himself to refer us to the Authority of the Ancients for the Truth of
founded by St. Paul and as it was the Seat of the Beloved Disciple St. John who continued there to the very time of Trajan above 100 Years after Christ. Hence Tertullian directing those who were desirous to know what the true Faith of Christ was to enquire among the Chiefest Churches in every part what had been deliver'd to them and was the Faith received and taught amongst them bids them if they were in Italy go to Rome if in Achaja to Corinth if in Macedonia to Philippi if in Asia to Ephesus Insomuch that as Evagrius tells us the Bishop of Ephesus had a Patriarchal Power within the Diocese of Asia till the Time of the Fourth General Council And long after that Theodorus Bishop of this See subscribing to the Acts of the Sixth General Council calls himself Bishop of Ephesus the Metroplis of the Province of Asia And even in the Times of which we are now discoursing St. John writing to the Seven Churches of Asia of which Laodicea was One places Ephesus at the head of them as that which had the Precedence of all the rest in those Parts 15. SEEING then such was the Prerogative which the Church of Ephesus had from the beginning over all the other Churches of the Asian Diocese and that St. Paul himself had first planted Christianity there And seeing it appears from the Command which he gave to the Colossians Chap. iv 16 to cause the Epistle which he had written to them to be read in the Church of the Laodiceans that he was wont to order the Epistles which he wrote to One Church to be sent to and be read in the Others that we renear unto it Seeing lastly we are told both by Tertullian and Epiphanius that the Epistle to the Ephesians was anciently called by some the Epistle to the Laodiceans I think it may not be improbable but that by the Epistle from Laodicea he may have meant the Epistle which he wrote to the Ephesians at the same time and by the same Person that he wrote to the Colossians and which being from them communicated to the Laodiceans might be ordered by St. Paul to be sent on to the Colossians who were a Neighbour Church to Laodicea and afterwards subject to it as their Metropolitane 16. BUT whatever becomes of this Conjecture Whether by the Epistle from Laodicea we are to understand some Epistle written from that place and that either by St. Paul to some other Church or Person or by the Laodiceans to him Or whether we are to understand by it some Epistle that was to be communicated from thence to the Colossians which seems to me the more probable and particularly that which he wrote by Tychicus to the Ephesians at the same time that he wrote by him to the Colossians Certain it is that the Epistle now extant under that Title is none of St. Paul's nor do's his Expression in that place to the Colossians before mentioned any more prove there was ever any such than that Other in 1 Cor. v. 9 proves a Third Epistle to the Corinthians which some also have pretended as Sixtus Sinensis and Others observe 17. IT would be endless to insist upon all the other Spurious Pieces of the like kind that have been attributed to this great Apostle It is sufficient to observe that neither Eusebius nor St. Jerome knew any thing more of his Writing than what we have in those Epistles that are still extant in our Bibles under his Name except it were the Epistle to the Hebrews and which tho' doubted of by some in the Primitive Church is yet ascribed to him by Eusebius who expresly accounts XIV of his Epistles and speaks of that to the Hebrews as his tho' he adds that being not received by the Church of Rome it was by some suspected whether it were indeed the true Epistle of St. Paul 18. BUT much greater is the Authority of those Supposititious Pieces which the same Eusebius tells us were even in those days attributed to that other great Apostle St. Peter viz. The Acts the Gosple the Preaching and the Revelations of St. Peter Nevertheless seeing he at the same time declares that they were never look'd upon as Catholick but rather as set out by some Hereticks of those Times as many other Pieces of the like kind were under the venerable Name of that Apostle the better to gain thereby Credit to their Doctrine How ancient soever they may otherwise be yet they will not fall within the compass of the present Collection Nor indeed is there any thing of them remaining to us except the Names and perhaps a few Fragments scatter'd up and down in the Quotations that have been made by Ecclesiastical Writers out of them 19. TO these let me add in the third place the Discourses attributed to St. Matthew the first Writer of the New Testament Two Books there are still remaining under his Name A Liturgy pretended to have been composed be him and a Discourse concerning the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin But both rejected by Learned Men as the Works of some Impostor many Ages after the Death of that Holy Apostle 20. AND the same must be said of the Liturgies ascribed in like manner to St. Peter St. Mark St. James and Others and of the Falsity of which all the Learned World seems now to be universally agreed Which makes it the more to be admir'd that such Great Men as Cardinal Bona and Leo Allatius were should be so far prejudiced in their Favour as to think at least the Liturgy of St. James to have been truly composed by that Apostle and only corrupted and interpolated by some other hand in the following Ages 21. NOR may we judg any otherwise of the Gospels set out under the Names of several of the Apostles and Others who were contemporary with them And of which however some were very ancient yet is it generally agreed among the most judicious of all sides that they were not only not written by those whose Names they carry but were for the most part set out by suspected Persons and for ill Ends after their Deaths 22. AS for the Writings of the whole Colledge of Apostles Two Pieces there are besides the Synodical Letter spoken of by St. Luke Acts xv 23 which not only go under their Names but have been by some ascribed to them as the Authors of them And those are first the Creed and secondly the Canons of the Apostles 23. FOR the former of these the Apostles Creed it has been thought by many that it was so called not only as being a Summary of the Apostles Doctrine but because it was really composed by them And that either in their first Assembly after our LORD's Resurrection Acts i. or else immediately before their Dispersion upon the breaking out of Herod's Persecution Acts xii which Baronius and others esteem the more probable It is not my intention to enter on any particular Examination of this Matter which has been so
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
doth it shall prosper As for the Wicked it is not so with them but they are as the Dust which the Wind scattereth away from the face of the Earth Therefore the Vngodly shall not stand in the Judgment neither the Sinners in the Council of the Righteous For the LORD knoweth the way of the Righteous and the Way of the Vngodly shall perish Consider how he has join'd both the Cross and the Water together For this he saith Blessed are they who putting their Trust in the Cross descend into the Water for they shall have their Reward in due time then saith he will I give it them But as concerning the present time he saith Their Leaves shall not fall Meaning thereby that every Word that shall go out of your Mouth shall through Faith and Charity be to the Conversion and Hope of many In like manner do's another Prophet speak And the Land of Jacob was the Praise of all the Earth that is the Vessel of his Spirit which he there magnifies And what follows And there was a River running on the Right hand and beautiful Trees grew up by it and he that shall eat of them shall live for ever The signification of which is this That we go down into the Water full of Sins and Pollutions but come up again bringing forth Fruit having in our Hearts the Fear and Hope which is in Jesus And whosoever shall eat of them shall live for ever That is whosoever shall hearken to those who call them and shall believe shall live for ever XII IN like manner he determins concerning the Cross in another Prophet saying And when shall these things be fulfilled The LORD answers When the Tree that is fallen shall rise and when Bloud shall drop down from the Tree Here you have again mention made both of the Cross and of him that was to be crucified upon it And yet farther he saith in one of the Books of Moses where when Israel was beaten by a strange People to the End that God might remember them how that for their Sins they were deliver'd unto Death the Holy Spirit put it into the Heart of Moses to represent both the Sign of the Cross and of him that was to suffer That so they might know that if they did not believe in him they should be overcome for ever Moses therefore piled up Armour upon Armour in the middle of a rising Ground and standing up high above all of them stretched forth his Arms and so Israel again Conquer'd But no sooner did he let down his Hands but they were again slain And why so To the end they might know that except they trust in him they cannot be saved And in another Prophet he saith I have stretched out my Hands all the Day long to a People disobedient and speaking against my righteous Way And again Moses makes a Type of Jesus to shew that he was to die and then that he whom they thought to be dead was to give Life to others in the Sign of those that fell in Israel For God caused all sorts of Serpents to bite them and they died forasmuch as by a Serpent Transgression began in Eve that so he might convince them that for their Transgressions they shall be delivered into the Pain of Death Moses then himself who had commanded them saying Ye shall not make to your selves any graven or molten Image to be your God yet now did so himself that he might represent to them the Figure of the LORD Jesus For he made a brazen Serpent and set it up on high and called the People together to an Assembly Where being come they intreated Moses that he would make an Attonement for them and pray that they might be healed Then Moses spake unto them saying when any one among you shall be bitten let him come unto the Serpent that is set upon the Pole and let him assuredly trust in him that though he be dead yet he is able to give Life and presently he shall be saved and so they did See therefore how here also you have in this the Glory of Jesus and that in him and to him are all things Again What says Moses to Jesus the Son of Nun when he gave that Name unto him as being a Prophet that all the People might understand that the Father did manifest all things concerning his Son Jesus in Jesus the Son of Nun Moses therefore gave him that Name when he sent him to spy out the Land of Canaan and said Take a Book in thine Hands and write what the LORD saith forasmuch as Jesus the Son of God shall in the last Days cut off by the Roots all the House of Amaleck See here again Jesus not the Son of Man but the Son of God made manifest in a Type and in the Flesh. But because it might hereafter be said that Christ was the Son of David therefore David fearing and well-knowing the Errors of the Wicked saith The LORD said unto my LORD sit thou on my Right Hand until I make thine Enemies thy Footstool And again Isaiah speaketh on this wise The LORD said unto Christ my LORD I have laid hold on his right Hand that the Nations should obey before him and I will break the strength of Kings Behold how both David and Isaiah call him LORD and the Son of God XIII BUT let us go yet farther and enquire whether this People be the Heir or the former and whether the Covenant be with us or with them And first as concerning the People hear what the Scripture saith Isaac prayed for his Wife Rebeckah because she was barren and she conceived Afterwards Rebeckah went forth to enquire of the LORD And the LORD said unto her There are two Nations in thy Womb and two People shall come from thee and the one shall have power over the other and the Greater shall serve the Lesser Understand here who was Isaac who Rebeckah and of whom it was foretold that this People should be Greater than that And in another Prophecy Jacob speaketh more clearly to his Son Joseph saying Behold the LORD hath not taken me from thy Face bring me thy Sons that I may bless them And he brought unto his Father Manasseh and Ephraim desiring that he should bless Manasseh because he was the Elder Therefore Joseph brought him to the Right Hand of his Father Jacob. But Jacob by the Spirit foresaw the Figure of the People that was to come And what saith the Scripture And Jacob crossed his Hands and put his Right Hand upon Ephraim his second and the Younger Son and Blessed him And Joseph said unto Jacob Put thy Right Hand upon the Head of Manasseh for he is my First-born Son And Jacob said unto Joseph I know it my Son I know it but the Greater shall serve the Lesser though he also shall be Blessed Ye see of whom he appointed