be always exact in repeating Scripture-Texts as to the words tho they keep well enough to the sense And for this reason also they do not always name the Scripture-Author whom they alledg even to avoid the possible Mistake of one Writer for another I make but this one remark more on the Citations of Scripture by these Fathers It is reckned they all wrote before the whole Canon of the New Testament was compleated M. Dodwel says expresly before Jude or the two Johns had written And they wrote from places very distant from Judea and from one another Hermas and Clemens from Rome Barnabas from Cyprus Polycarp Smyrna in Asia Ignatius from Syria This serves to assure us that the Gospels and Apostolic Writings were immediately communicated either by particular care of the Churches or more probably a publication to the most remote Bishops and Churches that there can be nothing more contrary to Truth and to the zeal and Diligence of the first Christians and Churches than this Affirmation of M. Dodwel and his Second that the Apostolic Writings were lockt up in Coffers of the Churches and Persons to whom they were written till 130 years after Christ Which is so far we have seen from being true that all the Writers of those times tho living in places some Thousands of miles distant from one another and from Judea adorn even their familiar Letters with Flowers from the four Gospels and Epistles of the present Canon nor do they cite that we know of a single Sentence from the Books of the Catalogue Amyntor however tho he assents to M. Dodwel in saying that our present Scripture-Canon and the Books that compose it were unknown to the Churches and Clergy till 130 years after Christ yet he doth not think Barnabas Hermas Clemens Polycarp or Ignatius were the real Authors of those Epistles that go under their Names but that these Epistles were forged about such time as so many other Impostures appeared in the Catholic Church namely a good while after the year 130. But hereby he hath entirely given up the Cause he was maintaining M. Dodwel speaks consistently to himself tho not truly when he says the Scripture-Canon was not known to the Churches or Clergy till about the year 130 because Clemens and the other Writers of those times cite nothing out of the said Canon But Amyntor forgets to be consistent to his Cause when he says the Canonical Books were not known till the year 130 and at the same time denies we have any Monuments left of those antient times Clemens and the rest being of much later date and also Impostures Besides granting to him that these Epistles are Impostures deviled more than 130 years after Christ as 150 or 180 after our Saviour yet having quoted abundance of Paragraphs out of our present Canon and none out of the Books of the Catalogue as we are hereby assured that the former were then known and approved as Books of received and allowed Authority so the other either were not known or not consider'd as Books whose Authority could oblige or so much as persuade There were divers other Writers of those early times besides Clemens and the rest mentioned by M. Dodwel and tho their Works are lost yet we have certain assurance that they quoted the Books of the New Testament Papias Bishop of Hierapolis was Scholar of St. John and Companion of Polycarp Eusebius had read his Works and takes occasional notice that he quotes the Epistles of St. John and St. Peter Euseb H. E. l. 3. Cap. ult Contemporaries to Papias and Polycarp and much within the term of 130 after Christ was Quadratus Agrippa sirnamed Castor and Basilides Of these Basilides wrote 24 Books of Commentaries or Explanations on the Gospels Concerning the other two Eusebius saith They with many more made it their business to preach in places whereas yet Churches were not gathered and τῶν θείων Ἐυανγελίων παÏαδιδόναι γÏαφὴν to bestow and disperse Copies of the Inspired Gospels H. E. Lib. 3. c. 37. Lib. 4. c. 7. Justin Martyr in his Second Apology but 140 years after Christ as Dr. Cave hath proved makes us to know that there was then a particular Officer in the Churches called the Reader distinct from the Preacher whose business it was saith he to read the Prophetical and Apostolical Books to the Congregation until it is sufficient Amyntor must suppose with great liberty if he supposes that in the year 130 the Books of the New Testament were unknown to the Churches and Clergy and that but ten years after they were so known and in such credit that the Churches entertained an Officer on purpose to read them in their Assemblies But why do we protract a Dispute and seek to old Authors known to few People to determine it when it may be ended by one demonstrative Argument and of which all Persons are capable The four Gospels Acts general Epistles and Revelation were not written to particular Persons or particular Churches but written and published to all the World Let me hear Amyntor or M. Dodwel say they were not written to be published or were not published so soon as written if they dare not say so why do they say they were kept in private Coffers till 130 years after Christ I don't think any body will believe that the Churches or Clergy were ignorant of the publishst Books of their Religion A Continuation of the Defence of the Canon ANother Detraction of our Author from the Credibility and just Authority of the Canon is that The principal Fathers of the three first Ages Ireneus Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen did quote divers Books of the Catalogue particularly Barnabas Hermas Ignatius Polycarp and Clemens Romanus as Scripture And why should not all the Books that are cited by these Learned Fathers as Scripture be accounted equally Authentic and Canonical Or if these Disciples and Successors of the Apostles could so grosly confound the genuin Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles with such as are spurious and falsly attributed to them how came others the following Fathers and the Councils who have undertaken to declare which Books are Canonical and which not to be better or more certainly informed In short he saith Clemens Romanus Barnabas Ignatius Hermas and Polycarp were esteemed by the Antients to be as good as any part of the New Testament and seeing herein they were so grosly mistaken what stress can be laid on their Testimony concerning the Books of the New Testament itself which Testimony however both formerly and at present is alledged as the principal reason sometimes he maketh it to be the only-reason why the Books of the New Testament are received as Canonical Amynt p. 44 45 46 52 79 80. He adds at p. 57 58. The Council of Laodicea An. 360 after Christ is the first Assembly wherein the Canon of Scripture was determined In so great a variety of Books those of the Catalogue he means and those of the Canon how could that
such a different Genealogy of our Saviour from that by St. Matthew without the reason of so wide a dissent nor would there be found in the other Evangelists so many apparent contradictions as have harassed the Wits of Learned Men almost since the first constitution of the Canon St. Luke plainly intimates that the Evangelists and Gospels he had seen were not furnisht with the relations they make by Eye-witnesses as himself was We have at this day says Mr. Dodwel some writings of Ignatius Polycarp Hermas Barnabas Clemens Romanus these were later than the other Writers of the New Testament except Jude and John and yet Hermas cites nothing out of the New Testament nor in all the rest are any of the Evangelists named If they cite any passages like to those we read in our present Gospels they are withal so unlike that it cannot be known whether they are alledged out of ours or some Apocryphal Gospels they cite also Passages which are not in the present Gospels Nay we cannot say from those Canonical Books that were last written that the Church knew any thing of the Gospels or that the Clergy made a common use of them We can't tell whence St. Paul had that moral Aphorism of our Saviour which he quotes Acts 20.35 In those early times the true Writings of the Apostles used to be bound up together with those now called Apocryphal and Spurious that it was not manifest by any mark or public Censure of the Church Which of them should be preferred to the other Upon this judgment made by Mr. Dodwel Amyntor says he agrees with Mr. Dodwel as to matter of Fact And he shuts up all with adding that whosoever has an inclination to write on this Subject is now furnisht with a great many curious Disquisitions whereon to show his Penetration and Judgment As how the immediate Successors and Disciples of the Apostles could so grosly confound the genuine Writings of their Masters with such as are falsly attributed to them And if they were in the dark about these matters in those early times How came the following Ages by a better Light Why all those Books which are cited by Clemens Alexandrinus and the rest should not be accounted equally authentic And lastly What stress can we lay on the Writings of those Fathers who not only contradict one another but are also inconsistent with themselves in their relations of the very same Facts The whole amounts to thus much The Books we now own as Canonical were never seen till about 130 years after Christ and when they appeared 't was not possible to distinguish them but by some Revelation from Apocryphal Gospels and Epistles which bore the names as these do of the Apostles and their Synergists From the earliest times contrary Copies of them were shown and not one of them but was rejected by considerable and potent Parties of Christians the very Parties that received them have changed 'em three or four or more times that they might be at liberty to affirm or deny as present Exigence should require The Figments of Hermas the Trash of Barnabas and others such like have an equal right to a place in the Canon of Scripture with the Gospels of Mark and Luke The Authority and Credit of both and of all the other Canonical and Extra-canonical Writings depending on the Quotations made from them by St. Ireneus Clemens Alexandrinus Origen and one or two more of the Antients and on their having been Contemporaries and Coadjutors to the Apostles And so in few words Friends bonas noctes to the Christian Religion Our Author however that we may not forget to do him that right is a compleat Gentleman tho he has us and our Canon at these Advantages he saith He will determine nothing but suspend his Judgment P. 58. On the CATALOGUE in general THE Catalogue by Amyntor is considerable on divers accounts As it is pretty Perfect He has omitted but few of those Antient Pieces and not so often mistaken as some others the several and like Titles of the same Book for several and distinct Books And as it naturally gives one a great Idea of the Christian Religion By informing us of so many Persons that wrote Gospels Acts Revelations Liturgies Itineraries Martyrdoms either on their own knowledg or on credible report made to them and which have not been lost on any other accounts but such as are common to things Valuable and Great in their kind Such as the Deluge of an immense time almost 1700 years the absolute Certainty and apparent Sufficiency of the Gospels Acts Epistles c. which on those accounts the Church has preserved and contents her self with them And lastly As nothing can be objected to it or inferred from it but what in such a case a man of any Experience or Prudence would certainly expect Namely that in so important and various a Subject there would be some more Writers and Writings than the extreme Caution of the Catholic Church would intirely approve and even that some Triflers and Impostors would intermix and intrude themselves among the approved and well-meaning It will be requisite to enlarge a little on these general Reflections That the Catalogue is indifferent perfect I grant However some Books and other Writings are omitted and others never really extant or pretended to be extant are added For instance under the first Head or of Books ascribed to our Saviour or that particularly concern him these are overlookt A Book by St. Matthew distinct from that by Thomas concerning the Infancy of our Saviour being the History of his younger Years 'T is very antient for it hath some Passages that are also mentioned by St. Ireneus and which he saith were in the Books shown by the Valentinians A Letter of our Saviour that fell down from Heaven it being indeed an Epistle forged by a certain notable Enthusiast a French Bishop who for this and some other such-like Facts was deprived and put to penance by a Council assembled at Rome An. 745. The Letter however was kept in the Library of the Roman Church by order of Pope Zechary A Liturgy of our Saviour received as his by the Ethiopians it was brought out of the Orient by Father J. Vanslebius who promises also to publish it at Paris together with other rare Ethiopic Pieces But Ludolphus in his Ethiopic History and Commentary gives the true account of this Liturgy As to Books added under the same Head Amyntor mistakes when as from Eusebius he attributes to our Saviour a Book of Parables and Sermons For on the contrary these Proverbs and Doctrines as Eusebius calls them were all of them only Traditional they were Doctrines and Proverbs that Papias Bishop of Hierapolis had heard from some Persons that they were spoke and taught by Jesus Christ but they never were committed to writing as a particular Book by any body The Millennium or thousand-years Reign was one of these Traditional Doctrines I observe also that Amyntor
79 he has a Quotation out of M. Dodwel to this sense The Books of the present Canon lay concealed in the Coffers of particular Churches or of private Men the Churches and Men to whom they were written till the latter times of Trajan or rather of Adrian that is till about 130 years after Christ We are not to think that the Writers of the New Testament knew any thing of the Gospels or other Books of the Canon that were not wrote by themselves or that the Clergy made a Common use either of the one or other We have still some Ecclesiastical Writers of those early times Clemens Romanus Barnabas Hermas Ignatius and Polycarp but in Hermas there is not one passage out of the New Testament in the rest not any of the Evangelist is called by his Name of is particularly named Nor can we know whether the Passages they cite are alledged out of the Gospels or other Books of our present Canon or from other Gospels and Books namely the Books of the Catalogue for the Citations are very different from the Words in our present Gospels and other Canonical Books and for the most part have something added to them Amyntor declares he assents to all this and farther to recommend it he complements M. Dodwel after a very extraordinary manner He affirms M. Dodwel tho a Lay-man knows as much of these matters as the Divines of all Churches put together What an advantage is it sometimes to a man not to be a thing in Holy Orders how much more knowing and Learned shall he be than himself was aware for I take it for granted this Bounce of a Complement was wholly intended to M. Dodwel's Lay-quality I am content for my part M. Dodwel be the next HERO to M. Milton I hope however 't will be granted that how much soever M. Dodwel knows he does not know that to be true which is false and in confidence of this I intend to discuss what he hath said Or rather to speak with due reserve of a Person and Matter that I my self do not know what Amyntor hath imputed to him He says The Writers of the New Testament were unknown to one another and to the Churches and Clergy till 130 years after Christ How do I fear lest he that is said to know as much of these Matters as the Clergy of all Churches put together should be found to know less of 'em than any of us Country-Curats For first as to the Writers of the four Gospels all the Church-Historians agree St. Matthew wrote first so it will not be expected we should prove that he had seen the rest but 't is apparent the next Evangelist Mark had seen and read the Gospel by St. Matthew because Mark 's Gospel is indeed nothing else but an abridgment of St. Matthew's as the Critics and Interpreters have many of them observed They are the words of H. Grotius on Mark 1.1 Vsum esse Marcum Matthaei Evangelio apertum facit collatio i. e. If we compare their Gospels it will be evident that St. Mark made great use of the Gospel by Matthew St. Austin de Cons Eccl. c. 2. says Marcus Matthaeum subsecutus tanquam pedissequus breviator ejus videtur i. e. As St. Mark wrote in time after St. Matthew so he follows him as it were at the very heels in respect of the things related only abridging what St. Matthew had more largely said After Matthew and Mark came St. Luke he is very reasonably and probably thought to intend besides we know not who else Matthew and Mark in those first words of his Gospel For as much as MANY have taken in hand to set forth in order a Declaration of those things which are surely believed among us even as they delivered them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word it seemed good to me also c. Those Characters of Eye-witnesses and from the beginning and Ministers of the Word agree to the Person of St. Matthew and the two last to St. Mark that to say the whole Period was intended of them at least with others is what has been reasonably believed hitherto and is not made less reasonable by the two Exceptions by Amyntor taken as he saith out of M. Dodwel They alledg that St. Luke has given a different Genealogy of our Saviour from that by St. Matthew without giving any reason for it and that there are many apparent Contradictions between these and other Writers of Scripture But if these Gentlemen please to look into Matth. 1.6 and Luke 3.31 they will see a reason of the difference of the Genealogies namely that St. Matthew deduces the Genealogy from Solomon St. Luke from Nathan both of them Sons of David and Ancestors to our Saviour in the sense that David was his Ancestor As for the apparent Contradictions between these Evangelists if it were true it would rather prove that St. Luke had seen and read those other two Evangelists because by writing any thing contrary to them he intended without doubt to correct their Mistake and rightly inform their common Readers But 't is certain he was not in the least aware that those former Evangelists needed any correction for himself we have seen before bears 'em witness that they had written all things as those Persons have also deliver'd them to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the WORD that is as the other Apostles and first Preachers have also dediver'd them by word of mouth The last Evangelist was St. John how he came to be an Evangelist or on what occasion he wrote Eusebius the first and learnedest Historian of the Church will tell us in these words The Gospels of Matthew Mark and Luke being in all mens hands came also to the knowledg of the Apostle John who approved them as faithfully written But he observed they were deficient in this respect that they had omitted that part of our Saviour's Actions and Preaching which preceded the Imprisonment of John the Baptist for they all begin their Narratives with the Imprisonment of John Hereupon St. John being thereto requested added in a Gospel by him the Time and Transactions that had been omitted by the other Evangelists Euseb H. E. l. 3. c. 24. The Epistles of St. Paul are another considerable part of the Canon of the New Testament our Opposers say They lay hid in the coffers of the Churches and Persons to whom they were written till 130 years after Christ I ask How then came St. Peter to say 2 Pet. 3.15 As our beloved Brother Paul according to the Wisdom given to him hath written to you as also in all his Epistles speaking to them of these things in which Epistles are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable do wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own Damnation This Testimony proves not only that St. Peter had seen the Epistles of Paul but
's Gospel is but an Abridgment of the Gospel by Matthew that St. Luke in the first Verses of his Gospel commends the Gospels of Matthew and Mark that St. John approved the Gospels of these three former Evangelists and wrote his Gospel only by way of Supplement to theirs that St. Peter commends the Epistles of Paul and signifie at the same time that they were commonly read and a bad Use made of them by some that the Catholick Epistles by James Peter Jude and John the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation being written either to whole Nations or to all Christians were certainly publish'd as soon as written 2. At least the Clergy and Churches were unacquainted with the Books of the New Testament till 130 years after Christ I have shown they were quoted by all the extant Writers of those Times by Barnabas Herinas Ignatius Polycarp Clemens Romanus and by some not Extant as Papias of Hierapolis in the year 110. Farther that the four Gospels the Acts Revelation Catholick Epistles and Epistle to the Hebrews being written for general Information or to whole Churches or Nations they were written to be publish'd and publish'd as soon as written and that 't is a very precarious and withal an unreasonable supposition that the Clergy and Churches were ignorant of the publish'd Books of their Religion That the contrary in truth is evident for as early as Justin Martyr's time the Churches entertained a Reader besides the Deacons Presbyters and Bishop who read the Old and New Testaments to the Assembly 3. It was impossible when the Books of the Canon first appeared to distinguish them from spurious Gospel Acts Epistles and Revelations which were also entitled to the Apostles I have replyed there was nothing more obvious or easy to the then Churches than to distinguish them with absolute certainty by their Agreement or Disagreement with the Doctrine and History of our Saviour which those Churches had but just before received by word of Mouth from the Apostles and other first miraculous Preachers 4. Different Copies were shown of all the Canonical Books from the very first the Nazarens and Ebionits had a Gospel of St. Matthew different from ours the Marcionits of St. Luke and of the Epistles of Paul I have answer'd Marcion was so ingenuous as to retract his vitiated Copies of St. Paul's Epistles and of St. Luke's Gospel the Copy of Matthew used by the Nazarens was say the Antients πληÏÎςατον most perfect the Ebionite Copy being probably St. Matthew's first or Hebrew Edition of his Gospel did indeed want the two first Chapters and in time they had added some Traditional Memoirs from the Witness of some Disciples that had seen the Facts and knew the Persons it were to be wish'd we had still this Copy 5. The Books of the Canon were imputed by some very considerable Sects of Christians not to the Apostles whose names they bear but either to Hereticks or to a set of Half-Jews and Half-Christians who had written them only from hearsay and flying Reports I have evinced that only the Gospel of John was ever mislayed and that the Alogians soon saw their Error in the Case not only receiving that Gospel but receiving it also with all other Sects and Churches as St. John ' s. That the Manichees the other considerable Sect of Christians intended in the Objection owned our four Gospels the Epistles of Paul all the Catholick Epistles and all other Books of our Canon in short that Amyntor certainly and inadvertently enough mistook the meaning of the Author Faustus the Manichee whom he alledged 6. The Philosopher Celsus complains that the Christians had alter'd their Gospel three or four or more times Celsus I have said meant this of the Copies of Marcion and of Valentinus and Lucanus which never were used in the Churches but at their first appearance were detected and rejected by all Churches Of the Books of the Catalogue he saith 1. MANY of 'em have rather been supprest by the strongest side in the Church than lost and that probably they were the genuin Works of the Apostles I have granted divers of 'em might be the real Works of those whose names they bore and that our loss of them is to be regretted but the whole body of Learning has suffer'd extremely by the loss of some of the best Books in every Science and Art Notwithstanding the Reasons alledged by the Antients against many of them are sufficient to convince us that there was just cause to slight and even to suppress them 2. The Epistles of Barnabas Ignatius Polycarp Clemens Romanus and the Pastor of Hermas were esteemed by the Antients to be a good Scripture as any part of the New Testament they were received by the soundest of the Antients who at the same time rejected divers Books of our present Canon namely the Revelation the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistle of Jude the second of Peter and the second and third of John But I have produced unquestionable Testimony of the Antients that these lesser pieces of the Canon were always received by the generality of Churches and Christians and that when they were owned in the Council of Laodicea 't was on very good grounds on the same Reasons which convinced 'em of the genuinness of the other Books of the New Testament As to Barnabas Ignatius Polycarp Hermas and Clemens Romanus they were considered indeed as pious and well-minded Compositions but were read no otherwise but as we now read in our Churches the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament which for all that we directly deny to be Divine Scripture and many think them not very Edifying or Profitable especially some of them 3. The principal Ante-nicen Fathers quoted divers Gospels Epistles and Acts of the Catalogue as Scripture and Canonical and this is all that can be said for the Books of the Canon and more than can be truly said for some of them I have alledged the very words of those Fathers it appears they never cite the Books of the Catalogue as Divine Scripture and in reciting the Books of the true Scripture-Canon and of the Apostles they always omit all the Gospels and other Books of the Catalogue I grant however that the mere Terms Scripture and Canonical were at first applied to all Ecclesiastical Books that were judged Orthodox as also to the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament to distinguish them from the Moral pieces of the Heathen Philosophers but the alledged Fathers have made us know the great difference they put between mere Scripture and Divine Scripture between Canonical and Inspired Nam pudet haec opprobria Nobis Et dici potuisse non potuisse Refelli FINIS Advertisement ALL the Works of the late Reverend and Learned William Bates D. D. and some Account of him in a Funeral Sermon by Mr. John How with an Alphabetical Table to the whole are proposed to be printed in a large Folio on an extraordinary Paper and Character at
of Paul with a multitude of other Acts and Passions The Gospel of Barnabas the Passion of Barnabas the Epistles of Joseph of Arimathea to the Britains XVII Pieces alledged in favor of Christianity which were forged under the names of Heathens The works of Trismegistus and Asclepius the Books of Zoroaster and Histaspes Kings in the Orient the Sibyllin Oracles A Letter of Pontius Pilate to Tiberius the speech of Tiberius to the Senate the Epistle of Lentulus giving a Description of the Person of Christ The Epistles or Orders of Adrian Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius in favor of the Christians extant in Justin Martyr Upon this Catalogue and from it Amyntor makes divers marvellous Remarks and Inferences to this effect The Antients reckned the Pastor of Hermas the Epistles of Barnabas of Polycarp and Clemens Romanus to be as good as any part of the New Testament And if saith He again these pieces are not Impostures but were really theirs whose name they bear why are they not received into the Canon of Scripture the Authors of them having been the Companions and Fellow-laborers of the Apostles as well as St. Mark and St. Luke If this quality was sufficient to intitle the two latter to Inspiration why should it not do as much for the two first And if this be not all the reason pray let us know the true one for I never heard of any other The second Epistle of Peter the Epistles of James and Jude the second and third of John the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Revelation were not approved as Canonical till after the time of Eusebius therefore why may not we also establish the Epistles of Clemens and of Barnabas if indeed they be theirs It may be saith our Author all the Books particularly all the Gospels in the foregoing Catalogue were not spurious or forged but rather Genuine and of right belonging to the Canon of Scripture as in the dark Ages of Popery divers Books were added to the Bible so in the no less ignorant first Ages of Christianity other Books might be taken from it because they did not sute with all the Opinions of the strongest side How many true or false Gospels were extant in Luke's time God knows but that there were several may be inferred from his own words Many have taken in hand to set forth a declaration of those things which are believed among us as they delivered 'em to us who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the WORD Luke 1.1 2 3 Several Books particularly Gospels of the before-recited Catalogue were quoted by the most celebrated Fathers says Amyntor to prove important Points of the Christian Religion and this Testimony of those Fathers was the principal Reason of our putting the Gospels and Epistles that are now approved and received into the present Canon Eusebius rejects the Acts Gospels Preaching and Revelation of Peter because no Antient nor Modern Writer says he has quoted proofs out of them on the same account he rejects also the Gospels of Thomas Matthias and such like as also the Acts of Andrew John and other Apostles as spurious But herein Eusebius was mistaken as appears says our Author still by the Testimonies I have cited Had Eusebius found any of These Pieces alledged by precedent Orthodox Writers he would have owned them as part of the Scripture-Canon but I have shown proofs were quoted out of some of them so that they may still belong to the Canon for all Eusebius It is certain so he goes on the Epistle to the Hebrews the Epistles of James and Jude the second and third of John the second of Peter and the Revelation were doubted by the soundest of the Antients and yet are received by the Moderns I say therfore by more than a parity of reason the Preaching and Revelation of Peter were received by the Antients and ought not to be rejected by the Moderns if the approbation of the Antients or Fathers be a proper recommendation of Books The Council of Laodicea convened about the year 360 is the first Assembly in which the Canon of Scripture was establisht In such a variety of Books they could not determine which were the true Monuments of the Apostles but either by a particular Revelation of which we hear not a word or by the Testimony of their Predecessors I have the same Testimony for the Books I defend He means for the Preaching and Revelation of Peter the Pastor of Hermas the Epistle of Barnabas and divers Gospels He wishes some qualified Person would endeavor to extricate the erroneous out of these and such like difficulties that we may discover by some infallible marks in such an extraordinary number of Books all of them equally pretending to Divine Origin which of them are the proper Rule lest we unhappily mistake a false one for the true He tells us again the Philosopher Celsus exclaims against the liberty which Christians had taken of changing the first Writing of the Gospel three or four or more times that so they might deny whatsoever was urged against them as retracted before The Manichees a very considerable Sect shewed other Scriptures and denied the Genuinness of the whole New Testament particularly Faustus a Manichee complains the Testament of the Son is corrupted by obscure Persons who have put the Names of the Apostles and their Successors to false Gospels that are full of Mistakes and of contradictory Relations and Opinions After the decease of Christ and the Apostles says the Manichee a sett of Half-Jews picked up from Fame and flying Reports a great many Lies and Errors which they also published under the names of the Apostles and of those that succeeded them Add to all this that the Ebionites or Nazarens who were the oldest Christians had a different Copy from ours of St. Matthew's Gospel The Marcionites read the Gospel of St. Luke very diversly from us the Gospel of St. John was attributed to Cerinthus all the Epistles of Paul were denied by some a different Copy shown of them by others It would be commendably done he says to prevent the Mischievous Inferences which Hereticks may draw from all this and to remove the Scruples of doubting but sincere Christians as for his own part if he is in any fault about these matters it is not too much Incredulity but that it may be he believes more Scripture than his Adversaries He gives hopes he will write a History of the Canon of Scripture the fairest nay the only one of the kind that ever was penned He concludes with an extract as he saith out of Mr. Dodwel to this purpose The Books of the New Testament lay hid in the Archives of Churches and Desks of private Persons to whom they were written till the latter end of the Reign of the Emperor Trajan or rather of Adrian that is till about the year after Christ 130. Even the latter Evangelists had not seen the Gospels of the former else St. Luke would never have given
if it had no manner of certainty and that we cannot now nor ever could distinguish Fables and Impostures from Authentic Monuments If a man is disposed to employ his Wit in scurrilous Conjectures he may say many things on such a Subject as this that shall be loudly applauded by the Partisans of Scepticism and Profanity and that will surprise the Superficial tho they be Serious and well-disposed But I maintain that after we have discovered such Reasons of the loss of these Books as every body must allow that some of them are certain and others of them are probable and all of them consistent with the reverence due to Religion those other Sportive or Malevolent Conjectures will be insisted on only by such as affect to be Infidels or that love to be vain tho in a serious and weighty Subject And tho to convince such People is it may be an impossible Task it being so much in the power of the Mind whether it will admit a light to which it has prejudices yet it will not be hard to satisfy the Indifferent that those Guesses are not the results of Judgment but only of a sceptical abuseful prejudicate and interessed Partiality and Vanity They tell us these Books were not lost they were supprest because they contained some things contrary to the Persuasions of the strongest side which always calls it self the Church Or they were gross and leud Forgeries composed by the Enemies of Christians with design only to make sport with a Crew of Blockheads that were always ready to swallow any thing never so silly and ridiculous provided it were but miraculous and had a few good Morals Or we owe them to a certain pious fraud to which the Antients were much given that sought to magnify Christianity by these pompous Tales and Additions to it the true Apostolic Writings being too imperfect to raise in mens Minds any great apprehensions of the Christian Religion Yet lest we should not by all this fully understand them they are mindful and careful to add that these Writings and Books however were quoted and reverenced by many of the Antients or Fathers and that no more than this can be said on behalf of the Books of our Canon that are preserved and not so much for divers of them Or more in short the latter are not a rush better or wiser than the former saving only that they have had the good luck to be preserved by Knaves and magnified by Fools Let us call over and discuss these things The Books of the Catalogue were once in reputation in some Places and with divers Learned Persons but they are now partly lost partly very much suspected as not Genuin We answer Seventeen hundred years the undeniable sufficiency of the Books which are preserved and that the Books of the Catalogue were not timely communicated to the principal Churches are obvious and probable Reasons that so many of 'em have miscarried and the rest are of doubtful Credit Some People are pleased to laugh at this and choose rather to guess that the Books we talk of have been either supprest or slighted because they were not to the tooth of the strongest side or were the Mock compositions of Enemies or the Holy Cheats of Persons that sought to aggrandize Christianity That is without ever having seen these Books without having heard of most of them under any other Character by the Antients than that they were known but to few they pronounce over them indefinitly or without distinguishing them that they were lend Cheats or pious Fraeuds or told some dangerous Tales that the political and prevailing Party thought fit to suppress Who sees not these are Suppositions that a man may make at will concerning any Books that are lost or any such Books that the Evidences of their being Genuin and sound have miscarried but they are mere Conjectures and such as neither Charity nor Prudence suffers us to make when we have others that are extremely probable and some of them certain I gave some Instances before of Mathematical Historical and Philosophical Books that are lost there is no learned Man that would approve of such a Judgment as this concerning them they have perisht because they were Trifles or Impostures or shot some such Bolts as the generality of wiser men could not away with I leave the matter with the indifferent to judg of it as their Wit and Honesty shall dispose ' em I added at our entrance into this Dissertation Nothing can be objected to the Catalogue but what one would look for that in so various a Subject some more Books are written than the severe serutiny of the Catholic Church would absolutely approve and that some Triflers and Impostors would perhaps be exercising their shameful Talents among the honest and well-qualified I meant hereby if we grant that most or almost all or if you will all the Books of the Catalogue were Spurious that they were pious Frauds or impious Cheats or have been supprest by the Jealousy of the prevailing side it will not in the least affect the Scripture-Canon or Christian Religion which are not the less true or less certain because there have been some false Evangelists and false Pretenders to Revelation Infidelity and Profanity are hard put to it when their whole strength is reduced to this there have been some false Evangelists feigned Acts Epistles Revelations therefore we have no certainty of any true Gospels Revelations Epistles or Acts. As if they had said Lucius Ambrose and Arthur were fabulous Kings of Britain and Jeffry of Monmouth has contrived a British Chronicle consisting chiefly of Tales of his own devising therefore neither can we prove Cassibelan Caractacus and Arviragus were sometimes Kings in this Island Or if you will thus Isidore Mercator published a Volume of Spurious Epistles of Popes and Bishops and Decrees of Councils Annius of Viterbium somewhile deceived every body with a Counterfeit Metasthenes a Berosus Manetho and Philo. Therefore we ought not to think there were at all any such Councils Bishops and Popes or a real Metasthenes a Berosus Philo and Manetho who were Learned and celebrated Writers and Historians Why don't they alledg the Alchoran too as an Exception and Objection to the Scripture Canon and say because one was an Imposture so must the other Our Author seems to be aware of some such Exceptions as these and therefore makes short work with us by intimating in a great many places that The reasons are the same why we should reject or receive the Catalogue and present Scripture-Canon as much may be said for or against one as the other We will examine this and the Pretences with which 't is supported very carefully Of the Verity and Certainty of the Scripture-Canon I Shall reduce into the best Method and most natural Order that I can what is any way considerable in our Author's Book concerning the Scripture-Canon discussing every particular as I recite or mention it From P. 69 to P.
that they were commonly read and a very bad Use made of 'em by some The remaining part of the Canon even the Catholic or General Epistles by St. James St. Peter St. John St. Jude and the Revelation because they were written some of them to whole Nations and the rest to all Christians not to particular Persons or Churches we must needs understand they were published by those Apostles themselves They could be no otherwise written and addressed to Nations and to all Christians but by such a general Publication as when we now give a Copy of a Letter or Book to a Bookseller to be by him made common It appears I suppose by all this to indifferent Persons that 't is utterly untrue that the Writers of the New Testament were strangers to the Writings of one another is it any better what follows next namely that Neither did the Clergy or Churches know of the Gospels and other Books of our present Canon We have still say these Gentlemen some Ecclesiastical Writers of those early times Clemens Romanus Barnabas Hermas Ignatius and Polycarp Of these Hermas has not one passage out of all the New Testament and for the places that are cited by the rest one cannot tell whether they are taken out of the Books of the present Canon or out of the Spurious Books even those of the Catalogue or some such Hermas has not one passage out of the New Testament Therefore what Why therefore as we were saying and are now proving Hermas had not read the Books of the New Testament which were all still and long after even to the year 130 in the Coffers of Persons and Churches to whom they were writen And I say Hermas has not cited a word out of the whole Old Testament Had he not therefore read any of the Books of that Testament had not a profest Christian and a Writer think they read any Book of the Old or New Testament It is apparent he had read both by the Doctrine of his Book by his Discourses on Baptism Repentance and all Christian Virtues by his Visions Similitudes and Commands of all which he had his Hints from the Books of Holy Scripture especially the Prophetical He even sometimes expresses himself in the very words of the New Testament as when he says Com. 4. Sect. 1. He that putteth away his wife and marrieth another committeth Adultery Which he took no doubt from Sr. Luke who uses those very words Luke 16.18 Clemens Romanus manifestly alludes to divers Expressions and Passages of the New Testament and some he expresly repeats as Charity covereth a multitude of Sins 1 Pet. 4.8 We are Members one of another Rom. 12.5 He Christ is so much greater than Angels as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they Heb. 1.2 4. Forgive and ye shall be forgiven with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again Luke 6.37 Wo unto him by whom Offences come It were better for him that a Milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were cast into the Sea than that he should offend one of my little ones Luke 17.1 2. St. Polycarp takes notice of the Epistle written by Sr. Paul to the Philippians and saith that Apostle mentions the Philippians with much Honor in the beginning of his Epistle to them So indeed he dos calling them the Saints at Philippi and professing that upon every remembrance of them by giveth thanks to God Phil. 1.1 2. He cites also the words of St. Paul to other Churches as Do ye not know that the Saints shall judg the World 1 Cor. 6.2 Neither Fornicators nor Effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind shall inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 10. We brought nothing into this World and we can carry nothing out of it 1 Tim. 6.7 He often repeats the Words and Expressions of St. Peter Whom not having seen ye love in whom tho now ye see him not ye rejoice with joy unspeakable end full of Glory â— Pet. 1.8 Who his own self hare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree who did no Sin nor was Guile found in his Mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 24. Having your Conversation honest among the Gentiles Out of St. John he hath Whosoever doth not confess that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh this is Anti-Christ 1 John 4.3 From the Evangelists Matthew and Luke he gives us these Passages Blessed are they that are persecuted for Righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of God Matth. 5.10 Blessed are the Poor for theirs is the Kingdom of God Luke 6.10 The Spirit truly is willing but the Flesh is weak Matth. 26.41 Clemens and Polycarp affect to speak whatsoever they have to say in the words of Scripture especially of the New Testament St. Ignatius rather uses his own way of Expression but he saith from St. Matthew He that is able to receive this let him receive it Matth. 19.12 The Tree is known by his Fruit. Matth. 12.33 From St. Paul he borrows who hath given himself for us an Offering and Sacrifice to God Eph. 5.2 Be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment and all speak the same things 1 Cor. 1.10 Where is the Wise where is the Disputer 1 Cor. 1.23 They have but one Witness more to call St. Barnabas who also is against them not much less than the former for he alledges from St. Matthew Many are called but few are chosen Matth. 20.16 and 22.14 He came not to call the Righteous but Sinners to repentance Matth. 9.13 In his 19th Section he giveth an Abstract or Summary of the Moral and Practical Duties of Christianity or the way of Life as he speaks it appears both by the matter and manner of speaking He meant to abridg the morality of the Old and New Testaments If we now consider that these Pieces are only Epistles or Letters and some of them so brief that they may be written on a sheet of Paper we may rather wonder that these Fathers have quoted so much Scripture than that we meet so little in their Letters And when M. Dodwel and Amyntor say They cannot tell whether these Citations are from the Books of our Canon or from some of the Apocryphal Books of the Catalogue they put me hard to it to imagine what they can tell for they are the very words neither more nor fewer of the Canonical Books and are extant in no other Writers that I or that they know unless they should be in the invaluable lost Decads of Titus Livius As to other Quotations out of these Fathers that might also have been observed in which in repeating the words of Scripture they sometimes substitute an equivalent word or words for the word in the Scripture-Text it was not because they were quoting some Apocryphal Gospel Epistle or Acts but because they cited by memory Wanting Concordances and our other Modern Helps they could not without much trouble to themselves
being a very considerable Sect nor did they show other Scriptures as written by Christ or his Apostles nor deny the genuinness of the whole New Testament or so much as of any Book of it All the business is Amyntor knew not how to point the words of Faustus nor how to render them into English his Translation of 'em is not only false but 't is non-sense By the same figure of Speech that he calls the Manichees Christians he must also call the Mahometans Christians nay there is incomparably more reason so to call the latter than the former but the latter were never so called by any therefore neither may the former Manchaeus and Mahomet equally pretended that he was the Paraclet or Comforter promised to his Disciples by our Saviour in those words recorded by St. John If I go not the Comforter or Paraclet will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him to you When he the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all Truth John 16.7 13. Mahomet innovated but little comparatively in the Articles of Religion Manichaeus subverted all things He taught and his few Followers believed 1. There are two Co-eternal Principles God and Hyle the former the Author of all Good the other of all Evil. 2. God very hardly defends his Frontiers from the encroachments of Hyle even some part of his Divine Substance is captivated by Hyle nor shall it ever be wholly released 3. God is not the Creator of Mankind but Nature 4. The God of the Old Testament is a lying and impotent Spirit false and harsh to his Servants and who was neither able nor willing to protect or do good to the Synagogue or Church of the Jews which served him as an Hand-maid her Mistress 5. Jesus Christ was neither born nor died but is the off-spring of the Holy Spirit generated in the Earth and subsisting in all living Creatures as also in all Fruits and Vegetables the visible Jesus was only a Phantom 6. The Patriarchs and Prophets of the Old Testament were the most flagitious of all men and ought not to be named without some particular and remarkable Detestation 7. Souls are a part of the Substance of God and when the Body dies they enter into other Bodies of men or of Beasts or Fish or of some Tree Herb or Flower as their desert in the present Life hath been except however some few thorowly purified Souls which re-ascend into Heaven where they live and row in Boats of Light 8. The Sun and Moon are to be adored It is evident by these Articles of the Manichaean Creed that our Author might as well or better have said There is a very considerable Sect of Christians themselves I mean the Mahometans who shew other Scriptures and deny the Books of our present Canon If this would be ridiculous the other a considerable Sect of Christians I mean the Manichees is much more so Well let 'em be a Sect of Christians yet they were not as he saith a very considerable Sect. St. Austin who for nine years was of their Number says in tam exiguo pene nullo Numero vestro i. e. you are a very few and almost none at all And again I confess good Christians are but few but those of our Denomination who are really good are vastly more than all you Manichees whether good or bad Contr. Fausium l. 20. c. 23. They shall be Christians and a very considerable Sect. What then Why they shewed other Scriptures different from those that are read and used by the Church If he means they shew some Writings of Minichaeus which among them were valued as the Scriptures of the Evangelists and Apostles are esteemed among Christians 't is true indeed but not to the purpose No more than if he had said the Mahometans show an Alchoran as Christians do a Bible therefore the Bible is a spurious supposititious Book never wrote by the pretended Authors of it The question is whether the Books of the New Testament are genuine were indeed written by the Persons whose names they bear Amyntor answers No for the Manichees a very considerable Sect of Christians themselves shew other Scriptures Plainly if he means they also shew Books written by the Patriarch of their Sect 't is a random Bolt the enquiry not being Whether the Manichees had certain Books which they followed but whether they pretended to prove that the Christian Bible is not genuin by shewing other different Copies of it And this without doubt Amyntor intended therefore I answer they never pretended to shew other Copies of the Christian Bible than those in the Catholic Church Faustus their Advocate never says such a Text is not in our Copies he says only I believe 't is foisted into the Scripture-context because it is a manifest Falshood The two Paraclets Manichaeus and Mahomet were altogether unlearned they both pretended that the Christian Bible was in many places greatly corrupted but this they proved only by arguing against the particular Passages which they disliked not by producing other Copies different from those of the Church In short the way they took might prove the Scriptures of Christians to be erroneous but by no means to be spurious interpolated or not genuin How this madness of the Paraclets is to be answered we shall consider by and by we must now examine what Amyntor has here added he saith The Manichees not only shewed other Scriptures but denied also the genuinness of the whole New Testament He hath no witness of it Faustus whom he alledges says the contrary I don't deny he has truly recited those places of Faustus which he hath put into his Margin but as I intimated before he hath neither seen how to rightly point them nor truly translate them and the reason of both I imagine was he overlookt the Explanations that Faustus gives in other Sections of his meaning and intention First As to the Epistles of St. Paul and of the other Apostles both Faustus and St. Austin own expresly they were allowed by the Manichees Their words are these Apostolum Paulum Accipis Maxime Do you receive Paul 's Epistles Most readily and especially Lib. 11. c. 1. Again Lib. 12. c. 24. Epistolas Apostolorum Legitis Tenetis Praedicatis You read believe and even extol the Epistles of the Apostles As to the Gospels Faustus even disdains that it should be questioned whether they are received by the Manichees If saith he by receiving the Gospel you mean obeying it it is the Rule of my Life and Conversation You Catholics pretend to receive the Gospel without giving any signs of it in your manners and you ask me whether I receive it who do all things that it requireth even all things that might prevent such a Question Lib. 5. c. 1 2. Elswhere he deals more explicitly and clearly Lib. 32. c. 7. We receive as Sacred Truth all that the Son hath said and even all that was said by his Apostles after