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bius, there is no room for any question upon the subject; the works of Christian writers being as full of texts of Scripture and of references to Scripture, as the discourses of modern divines. Future testimonies to the books of Scripture could only prove, that they never lost their character or authority.

SECT. II.

When the Scriptures are quoted, or alluded to, they are quoted with peculiar respect, as books sui generis; as possessing an authority which belonged to no other books, and as conclusive in all questions and controversies amongst Christians.

BESIDE the general strain of reference and quotation, which uniformly and strongly indicates this distinction, the following may be regarded as specific testimonies:

I. Theophilus bishop of Antioch, the sixth in succession from the apostles, and who flourished little more than a century after the books of the New Testament were written, having occasion to quote one of our Gospels, writes thus: "These things the Holy Scriptures teach us, and all who were moved by the Holy Spirit, among whom John says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.' Again: 'Concerning the righteousness which the law teaches, the like things are to be found in the Prophets and the Gospels. because that, being inspired, spoke by one and the same Spirit of God.'t No words can testify more strongly than these do, the high and peculiar respect in which these books were holden.

II. A writer against Artemon, who may be supposed to come about one hundred and fifty-eight years after the publication of the Scripture, in a passage quoted by Eusebius, uses these expressions : Possibly what they (our adversaries) say, might have been credited, if first of all the Divine Scriptures did not contradict them; and then the writings of certain brethren more ancient than the times of Victor.' The brethren mentioned by name, are Justin, Miltiades, Tatian, Clement, Irenæus, Melito, with a general appeal to many more not named. This passage proves, first, that there was at that time a collection called Divine Scriptures; secondly, that these Scriptures were esteemed of higher authority than the writings of the most early and celebrated Christians.

III. In a piece ascribed to Hippolytus, who lived near the same time, the author protesses, in giving his correspondent instruction in the things about wh.ch he inquires, 'to draw out of the sacred fountain, and to set before him from the sacred Scriptures, what may afford him satisfaction.' He then quotes immediately Paul's epistles to Timothy, and afterward many books of the New Testament.

* Lardner, Cred. part ii. vol. i. p. 429.

Ib. vol. iii. p. 40.

† Ib. vol. i. p. 448.
§ Ib. vol. iii. p. 112.

This preface to the quotations carries in it a marked distinction between the Scriptures and other books.

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IV. Our assertions and discourses (saith Origen*), are unworthy of credit; we must receive the Scriptures as witnesses.' After treating of the duty of prayer, he proceeds with his argument thus: 'What we have said, may be proved from the Divine Scriptures.' In his books againt Celsus, we find this passage: "That our religion teaches us to seek after wisdom shall be shown, both out of the ancient Jewish Scriptures, which we also use, and out of those written since Jesus, which are believed in the churches to be divine.' These expressions afford abundant evidence of the peculiar and exclusive authority which the Scriptures possessed.

V. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage,† whose age lies close to that of Origen, earnestly exhorts Christian teachers, in all doubtful cases, 'to go back to the fountain; and, if the truth has in any case been shaken, to recur to the Gospels and apostolic writings.'-The precepts of the gospel (says he in another place), are nothing less than authoritative divine lessons, the foundations of our hope, the supports of our faith, the guides of our way, the safe-guards of our course to heaven.'

VI. Novatus, a Roman, contemporary with Cyprian, appeals to the Scriptures, as the authority by which all errors were to be repelled, and disputes decided. "That Christ is not only man, but God also, is proved by the sacred authority of the Divine Writings.' -The Divine Scripture easily detects and confutes the frauds of heretics. It is not by the fault of the heavenly Scriptures, which never deceive.' Stronger assertions than these could not be used. VII. At the distance of twenty years from the writer last cited, Anatolius, a learned Alexandrian, and bishop of Laodicea, speaking of the rule for keeping Easter, a question at that day agitated with much earnestness, says of those whom he opposed, "They can by no means prove their point by the authority of the divine Scrip

ture.'

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VIII. The Arians, who sprung up about fifty years after this, argued strenuously against the use of the words consubstantial, and essence, and like phrases; because they were not in Scripture.'|| And in the same strain, one of their advocates opens a conference with Augustine, after the following manner: If you say what is reasonable, I must submit. If you allege any thing from the Divine Scriptures, which are common to both, I must hear. But unscriptural expressions (quæ extra Scripturam sunt) deserve no regard.'

Athanasius, the great antagonist of Arianism, after having enumerated the books of the Old and New Testament, adds, 'These are the fountain of salvation, that he who thirsts may be satisfied with the oracles contained in them. In these alone the doctrine of salvation

*Lardner, Cred. vol. iii. p. 287-289.

1 Ib. vol. v. p. 102.

Ib. vol. vii. p. 283, 284.

† Ib. vol. iv. p. 840.
§ Ib. p. 146.

is proclaimed. Let no man add to them, or take any thing from them.**

IX. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem,† who wrote about twenty years after the appearance of Arianism, uses these remarkable words: "Concerning the divine and holy mysteries of faith, not the least article ought to be delivered without the Divine Scriptures.' We are assured that Cyril's Scriptures were the same as ours, for he has left us a catalogue of the books included under that name.

X. Epiphanius, twenty years after Cyril, challenges the Arians, and the followers of Origen, to produce any passage of the Old and New Testament, favoring their sentiments."

XI. Phœbadius, a Gallic bishop, who lived about thirty years after the council of Nice, testifies, that the bishops of that council first consulted the sacred volumes, and then declared their faith.'

XII. Basil, bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, contemporary with Epiphanius, says, 'that hearers instructed in the Scriptures ought to examine what is said by their teachers, and to embrace what is agreeable to the Scriptures, and to reject what is otherwise.'||

XIII. Ephraim, the Syrian, a celebrated writer of the same times, bears this conclusive testimony to the proposition which forms the subject of our present chapter: "The truth written in the sacred volume of the gospel, is a perfect rule. Nothing can be taken from it nor added to it, without great guilt.'T

XIV. If we add Jerome to these, it is only for the evidence which he affords of the judgment of preceding ages. Jerome observes, concerning the quotations of ancient Christian writers, that is, of writers who were ancient in the year 400, that they made a distinction between books; some they quoted as of authority, and others not: which observation relates to the books of Scripture, compared with other writings, apocryphal or heathen.**

SECT. III.

The Scriptures were in very early times collected into a distinct

volume.

IGNATIUS, who was bishop of Antioch within forty years after the Ascension, and who had lived and conversed with the apostles, speaks of the gospel and of the apostles in terms which render it very probable that he meant by the gospel, the book or volume of the Gospels, and by the Apostles, the book or volume of their epistles. His words in one place are,tt 'Fleeing to the gospel as the flesh of Jesus, and to the apostles as the presbytery of the church:' that is,

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† Ib. vol. viii. p. 276.

8 lb. vol. ix. p. 52.

Ib. vol. ix. p. 222. tt Ib. part ii. vol. i. p. 180.

as Le Clerc interprets them, 'in order to understand the will of God, he fled to the Gospels, which he believed no less than if Christ in the flesh had been speaking to him; and to the writings of the apostles, whom he esteemed as the presbytery of the whole Christian church.' It must be observed, that about eighty years after this, we have direct proof, in the writings of Clement of Alexandria,* that these two names, 'Gospel,' and Apostles,' were the names by which the writings of the New Testament, and the division of these writings, were usually expressed.

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Another passage from Ignatius is the following: 'But the gospel has somewhat in it more excellent, the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ, his passion and resurrection.'t

And a third: Ye ought to hearken to the prophets, but especially to the gospel, in which the passion has been manifested to us, and the resurrection perfected.' In this last passage, the prophets and the gospel are put in conjunction; and as Ignatius undoubtedly meant by the prophets a collection of writings, it is probable that he meant the same by the gospel, the two terms standing in evident parallelism with each other.

This interpretation of the word 'Gospel,' in the passages above quoted from Ignatius, is confirmed by a piece of nearly equal antiquity, the relation of the martyrdom of Polycarp by the church of Smyrna. All things (say they) that went before, were done, that the Lord might show us a martyrdom according to the gospel, for he expected to be delivered up as the Lord also did.' And in another place, We do not commend those who offer themselves, forasmuch as the gospel teaches us no such thing.' In both these places, what is called the Gospels, seems to be the history of Jesus Christ, and of his doctrine.

If this be the true sense of the passages, they are not only evidences of our proposition, but strong and very ancient proofs of the high esteem in which the books of the New Testament were holden.

II. Eusebius relates, that Quadratus and some others, who were the immediate successors of the apostles, travelling abroad to preach Christ, carried the Gospels with them, and delivered them to their converts. The words of Eusebius are: "Then travelling abroad, they performed the work of evangelists, being ambitious to preach Christ, and deliver the Scripture of the divine Gospels.' Eusebius had before him the writings both of Quadratus himself, and of many others of that age, which are now lost. It is reasonable, therefore, to believe that he had good grounds for his assertion. What is thus recorded of the Gospels, took place within sixty, or at the most, seventy years after they were published: and it is evident, that they must, before this time (and, it is probable, long before this time), have been in general use, and in high esteem in the churches planted by the apostles, inasmuch as they were now, we find, col

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lected into a volume; and the immediate successors of the apostles, they who preached the religion of Christ to those who had not already heard it, carried the volume with them, and delivered it to their converts.

III. Irenæus, in the year 178,* puts the evangelic and apostolic writings in connexion with the Law and the Prophets, manifestly intending by the one a code or collection of Christian sacred writings, as the other expressed the code or collection of Jewish sacred writings. And,

IV. Melito, at this time bishop of Sardis, writing to one Onesimus, tells his correspondent,† that he had procured an accurate account of the books of the Old Testament. The occurrence, in this passage, of the term Old Testament, has been brought to prove, and it certainly does prove, that there was then a volume or collection of writings called the New Testament.

V. In the time of Clement of Alexandria, about fifteen years after the last quoted testimony, it is apparent that the Christian Scriptures were divided into parts, under the general titles of the Gospels and Apostles; and that both these were regarded as of the highest authority. One, out of many expressions of Clement, alluding to this distribution, is the following:-There is a consent and harmony between the Law and the Prophets, the Apostles and the Gospel.'t VI. The same division, Prophets, Gospels, and Apostles,' appears in Tertullian, the contemporary of Clement. The collection of the Gospels is likewise called by this writer the Evangelic Instrument;'ll the whole volume, the New Testament;' and the two parts, the Gospels and Apostles.'T

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VII. From many writers also of the third century, and especially from Cyprian, who lived in the middle of it, it is collected, that the Christian Scriptures were divided into two codes or volumes, one called the 'Gospels, or Scriptures of the Lord,' the other, the 'Apostles, or Epistles of the Apostles.'*

***

VIII. Eusebius, as we have already seen, takes some pains to show, that the Gospel of St. John had been justly placed by the ancients the fourth in order, and after the other three 'tt These are the terms of his proposition: and the very introduction of such an argument proves incontestably, that the four Gospels had been collected into a volume, to the exclusion of every other; that their order in the volume had been adjusted with much consideration; and that this had been done by those who were called ancients in the time of Eusebius.

In the Diocletian persecution, in the year 303, the Scriptures were sought out and burnt:‡‡ many suffered death rather than deliver them up; and those who betrayed them to the persecutors, were accounted as lapse and apostate. On the other hand, Constantine,

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