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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	canonical_a	new_a	testament_n	5,320	5	8.3782	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47975	The history of learning, or, An abstract of several books lately published, as well abroad, as at home by one of the two authors of the Universal and historical bibliotheque.	Lacroze, Jean Cornand de, d. ca. 1705.	1691 (1691)	Wing L137; ESTC P2191	57,220	74

discourse more freely and with greater weight concerning the matters The event happen'd as the Author had foreseen for the Pope vindicated the persecuted Jansenists either as being of their opinion or designing by the Publick expressing of a Compassion that cost him nothing to strengthen his party with the acce●ssion of so considerable a number of Learned Divines and of he best Writers in France Whereupon the King being incense●d that his Holiness should attempt as it were to prescribe Laws to him and should endeavour to withdraw his Subjects from their Allegiance to him took other measures and having Summon'd an Assembly of his Clergy † In the Year 1682. caus'd it to be declar'd therein 1. That the Pope hath no Authority directly or indirectly over the Temporalities of Kings 2. That much less hath he any power to depose them 3. That he is not infallible 4. That he is inferiour to a Council At that time the breach seem'd to be irreparable and it was generally believ'd that a Patriarch would e're long preside in France It is true indeed that the persecution of the Protestants whose entire Destruction was then hasten'd afforded but little hope of a Reformation to the moderate part of Roman Catholicks However many of them that were willing to flatter themselves with vain Expectations gave it out that none ought to be discourag'd by these rigorous Persecutions that the Court not being ignorant of the commotions that a too much precipitated Reformation hath produced in other places intended to proceed therein by degrees And that even on this account they had very good grounds to abolish the Exercise of the Reformed Religion either to avoid a Schism like unto that which vexes yet England at this present or insensibly to gain the consent of the old Catholicks by the Conversation of the new Upon the whole matter this is sufficient to induce us to believe that the Court of France is not unwilling that their Divines should take the Advantage of this Conjuncture obliquely to assault the Superstitions of the Church of Rome However Father Simon to vindicate himself in regard that our Author had refuted (a) 〈◊〉 4. Disse●● Prol. P. 30.38 ●9 his too presumptuous Conjectures on the Pentateuch hath written against him with much animosity accusing him as one that had employed his Pen to revive Calvinism that was so lately extirpated Nevertheless all these loud Clamours produced no effect serving only to promote the Sale of the Book neither have they oblig'd Mr. Du Pin to blot out these passages that were offensive to his Adversary but only to add certain Notes in this Second Edition to prove that Moses really composed the Pentateuch And the Author is so far from having been reprehended for bringing allegations in favour of the Protestants that the Censors of Books have loaded him with extraordinary Commendations in the beginning of the second Volume which they conclude in these words That not being able to determine whether the vast extent of his Learning the Sagacity of his Judgment or the continual solidity of his Reflections ought most to be admin'd they find themselves oblig'd to declare that that which would serve for the Commendation of many is not sufficient to discharge all the Obligations that they judge to be due to his singular merit A large Preface is prefixed to the first Volume wherein the Author explains and justifies the Title that he hath given to his Book gives an account of his Design and Method and propounds certain Critical Rules to determine whether a Work be forg'd or whether it really appertains to the Person to whom it is Attributed This Preface is follow'd with a Preliminary Dissertation concerning the Books of the Bible in which he treats 1. Of the Authors of the Books of the Old Testament in general 2. Of the Canonical and Apocryphal Writings And indeed the judgment of Mr. Du Pin on this Article is very Remarkable seeing he is a Roman Catholick for according to his opinion the Six last Chapters of the Book of Esther are not extant in the Hebrew Text but were taken from divers places and contain several pieces apparently Collected by the Hellenist Jews St. Jerom expresly rejects the Book of Buruch as not being included in the Canon of Sacred Writings in his Preface to the Prophecy of Jeremiah The History of Tobit is likewise excluded in all the Ancient Catalogues from the number of Canonical Writings as well as that of Judith In a word Christian Antiquity hath follow'd the Canon of the Jews as to the Books of the Old Testament there are no others Cited in the New and a great part of these are often alledged therein Moreover the Primitive Catalogues of Canonical Books composed by the Greek and Latin Ecclesiastical Authors do not contain any others In the Chronicon of Eusebius the Books of the Maccabees are separated from those of the Holy Scriptures and placed in the Rank of Josephus and Africanus The Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are inserted in the Ancient Catalogues among those Writings that are esteem'd to be very useful but such as are not Canonical Nothing can be inferr'd to prove their being Divinely inspir'd from those passages that are produc'd by the Fathers in regard that Origen St. Jerom and St. Hilary by whom they are cited reckon them among the Apocryphal Writings Moreover these Books were not admitted into the Canon of holy Scripture even in the time of Gregory the Great Forasmuch as this Pope speaks to this effect † Greg. Lib. 12. Moral We do nothing that is unreasonable in exhibiting the Testimony of Books that are not Canonical since they were Published for the Edification of the Church Many Ecclesiastical Writers both Greek and Latin reckon only 22 Canonical Books annexing the History of Ruth to that of Judges and the Lamentations of Jeremiah to his Prophecies although they lived after the third Council of Carthage and after Innocent I. who is reported to have inserted the Maccabees and other Apocryphal Books into the sacred Canon which shews adds our Author that these definitions were not follow'd by all Authors and by all the Churches until this was at last entirely determin'd by the Decision of the Council of Trent Insomuch that these Ecclesiastical Assemblies partake of this general property with the others that the Decrees of the later should abolish all those of the preceeding or otherwise it is but just that the Church of Rome which hath a power to make new Articles of Faith should likewise be invested with that of causing the Books from whence they are taken to be esteem'd as Canonical In the third Article of this dissertation the Author gives us the History of the Hebrew Original of the Translation of the Septuagint and of other Greek Versions of the Old Testament 4. He discourseth anfterwards concerning certain Authors whose works have some Relation to the Sacred Writings of the Hebrews as Philo Josephus Aristaeus c. 5.

He treats of the Authors of the Books of the New Testament And 6. of the Canon of these Books Let us now proceed to the Body of the Work Mr. Du Pin hath thought sit to reject the Liturgies (a) p. 8. that are attributed to the Apostles in regard says he that we need only to reflect a little on what we Read in the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians concerning the Celebration of the Eucharist and on that which hath been alledg'd on this Subject by St. Justin and the Primitive Fathers of the Church to be convinc'd that the Apostles and their Successors celebrated the Sacrifice of the Mass with great Simplicity A very small number of Litanies were recited therein but by little and little some other Collects were added together with certain exterior Ceremonies to render the Service more venerable to the People lastly the Churches proceeded to regulate and to commit these particular Methods to Writing and this is that which we call Liturgies Our Author is not only content to disallow the Works of the Counterfeit St Denis (q) p. 24. b but he likewise proves in one of his Notes (c) p. 38. that the true Dionysius the Ar●opagite never was in France that Photinus first propagated the Christian Religion in that Kingdom and that in the time of St. Irenaeus his Successor Christianity was establishd only in that part of the Country call'd Gallia Viennensis Lugdurensis since there were no Martyrs any where but within the Limits of these two Provinces concerning whom he produceth (d) p. 50. an Epistle of the Church of Smyrna to those of Pontus which deserves to be remembred in more than one place The Pagans having hindred the Christians from carrying off the Body of Polycarp that remain'd entire in the midst of the Flames lest as was pretended by these deluded Heathens they should adore it instead of Jesus Christ the Church of Smyrna made this reflection thereupon certainly these People were possess'd with an extravagant frenzy as being ignorant that the Christians adore Jesus Christ only because he is the Son of God and that they honour the Martyrs who are his Disciples and followers only on the account of the Love that they testifie for their King and Master Afterward The Centurion having caus'd the Body of this Martyr to be burnt the Christians took away his Bones being more valuable than the most precious Stones and more pure than Gold which they BURIED in a place where they Assembled together to Celebrate with joy and Chearfulness the Day of his Martyrdom thus HONOURING the MEMORY of those that had fought Gloriously for their Religion to the end that they might confirm and instruct others by such Examples These are the Sentiments adds our Author of the Ancient Church concerning the Respect due to Martyrs and their Relicks explain'd after a very clear and distinct manner equidistant from the contempt that is cast on them by our Modern Hereticks and from the Superstition of some Catholicks But Mr. Du P●n would have extreamly oblig'd the World in shewing who those Hereticks are who despise the Holy Martyrs and their true Relicks and refuse to afford them this sort of honour that was done to their memory by the Church of Smyrna In this Edition is an extract of Origen's Book concerning Prayer (e) p. 142.145 which the Author had not seen when he publish'd the first and on the occasion of the dispute that rose between St. Cyprian and the Bishop of Rome concerning the Repeating of Baptism he produceth a remarkable passage (f) 164 2. taken from the Acts of the last Council of Carthage holden in the Year 256. Wherein this Father exhorting the 87 Bishops that were there present freely to disclose their mind without any design of excommunicating those that were of a different opinion gives them this reason For none ought to Style himself Bishop of Bishops to endeavour to constrain his Colleagues by a Tyrannical Authority by reason that every Bishop hath liberty and power to make use thereof as he shall think fit and that he can no more be judg'd by another than he can judge him But we ought all to attend to the judgment of CHRIST who alone hath power to set us over his Church and to judge of our Actions In this Controversy both parties pretended to have Tradition on their side and St. Cyprian oppos'd to that which was alledg'd against him by Pope Stephen the truth of the Gospel and the Primitive Tradition of the Apostles The Edition of the Works of this Father which is declar'd by Mr. Du Pin to be generally most esteem'd is that which hath been Published some years ago by two English Bishops and Printed at Oxford but the Annotations of Pamelius are not much reguarded by reason that he applies himself rather to confirm the Doctrine and discipline that is received and maintain'd by those of his own Society than to explain the difficulties that occur in the Text of the Author Mr. Du Pin doubts (g) ● 199.1 whether the passage recited by Joannes Damascenus in his third Homily concerning Images appertains to Methodius it is declared therein that the Christians made certain Figures of Gold representing the Angels for the Glory of God if it were written by this Bishop it must be taken said he in another Sence different from that which is attributed to it by Damascenus and by these words Angels Principalities and Powers the Kings of the Earth are to be understood as may be inferr'd from the preceeding expressions Moreover he rejects all the Decretals that are imputed to the Primitive Popes and believe that they were forg'd by Riculphus and his Successor Benedict in the ninth Century Lastly he concludes this Volume with an Epitome of the Doctrine Discipline and Moral Instructions of the Church in the three first Ages thereof There are no notes subjoined to this Abridgment because it is taken for granted that sufficient prooss of all that is asserted therein have been already exhibited in the body of the Work Nevertheless it cannot be discerned by what Arguments alledg'd in the preceeding Treatise Mr. Du Pin supports the following Propositions that are afterward maintain'd by him in the said Epitome viz. 1 That altho' all the Fathers are not agreed that Infants are born in Sin and liable to Damnation yet the contrary opinion was more agreeable to the Church 2 That the Sacrifice of the Mass was Celebrated in Memory of the Dead 3 That the ancient Christians invocated the Saints and Martyrs deceas'd and that they were perswaded that they prayed to God for the living However there are other Principles that are grounded on better Authority and such as are of great importance with respect to the present differences among Christians 1 That the ancient Writers always mention'd the Virgin Mary with a great deal of respect tho' they have not exceeded their due bounds as it hath been afterwards practised