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that term, but to those which were controverted, and even to those which were well known and approved by many, yet doubted of by some, he represents not only the sense of his own age, but the result of the evidence which the writings of príur ages, from the apostles' time to his own, had turnished to his inquiries. The opinion of Eusebius and his contemporaries appears to have been founded upon the testimony of writers whom they then called ancient: and we may observe, that such of the works of these writers as have come down to our times, entirely confirm the judgment, and support the distinction, which Eusebius proposes. The books which he calls 'books universally acknowledged,' are in fact used and quoted in the remaining works of Christian writers, during the two hundred and fifty years between the apostles' time and that of Eusebius, much more frequently than, and in a different manner from, those, the authority of which, he tells us, was disputed.

SECT. IX.

Our historical Scriptures were attacked by the early adversaries of Christian ity, as containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded.

I. NEAR the middle of the second century, Celsus, a heathen philosopher, wrote a professed treatise against Christianity. To this treatise, Origen, who came about fifty years after him, published an answer, in which be frequently recites his adversary's words and arguments. The work of Celsus is lost; but that of Origen remains. Origen appears to have given us the words of Celsus, where he professes to give them, very faithfully; and, amongst other reasons for think ing so, this is one, that the objection, as stated by hin from Celsus, is sometimes stronger than his own answer. I think it also probable, that Origen, in his answer, has retailed a large portion of the work of L

Celsus: That it may not be suspected (he says) that we pass by any chapters, because we have no answers at hand, I have thought it best, according to my ability, to confute every thing proposed by him, not so much observing the natural order of things, as the order which he has taken himself."

Celsus wrote about one hundred years after the Gospels were published; and therefore any notices of these books from him are extremely important for their antiquity. They are, however, rendered more so by the character of the author; for, the reception, credit, and notoriety of these books must have been well established amongst Christians, to have made them subjects of animadversion and opposition by It evinces the truth of strangers and by enemies. what Chrysostom, two centuries afterward, observed, that the Gospels, when written, were not hidden in a corner, or buried in obscurity, but they were made known to all the world, before enemies as well as others, even as they are now.

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1. Celsus, or the Jew whom he personates, uses these words:-'I could say many things concerning the affairs of Jesus, and those, too, different from but I purthose written by the disciples of Jesus; posely omit them." Upon this passage it has been rightly observed, that it is not easy to believe, that if Celsus could have contradicted the disciples upon good evidence in any material point, he would have omitted to do so, and that the assertion is, what Origen calls it, a mere oratorical flourish.

It is sufficient, however, to prove, that, in the time of Celsus, there were books well known, and allowed to be written by the disciples of Jesus, which books contained a history of him. By the term disciples, Celsus does not mean the followers of Jesus in general; for them he calls Christians, or believērs, or the like; but those who had been taught by Jesus himself, i. e. his apostles and companions.

Orig cont. Cels. 1. i. sect. xli,
In Matt. Hom. 1. 7.
Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Test. vol. ii. p. 274.

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his hand; of the blood that flowed from the body of Jesus upon the cross, which circumstance is recorded by John alone; and (what is instar omnium for the purpose for which we produce it) of the difference in the accounts given of the resurrection by the evangelists, some mentioning two angels at the sepulchre, others only one.

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It is extremely material to remark, that Celsus not only perpetually referred to the accounts of Christ contained in the four Gospels, but that he referred to no other accounts; that he founded none of his objections to Christianity upon any thing delivered in spurious Gospels.

II. What Celsus was in the second century, Por phyry became in the third. His work, which was a large and formal treatise against the Christian religion, is not extant. We must be content therofore to gather his objections from Christian writers, who have noticed in order to answer them; and enough remains of this species of information, to prove completely, that Porphyry's animadversions were directed against the contents of our present Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles; Porphyry considering that to overthrow them was to overthrow the religion. Thus he objects to the repetition of a generation in Saint Matthew's genealogy; to Matthew's call; to the quotation of a text from Isaiah, which is found in a psalm ascribed to Asaph; to the calling of the lake of Tiberias a sea; to the expression in Saint Matthew, 'the abomination of desolation;' to the variation in Matthew and Mark upon the text, The voice of one crying in the wilderness,' Matthew citing it from Isaiah, Mark from the Prophets; to John's application of the term 'Word;' to Christ's change of intention about going up to the feast of tabernacles (John vii. 8.); to the judgment denounced by Saint Peter upon

Lardner, Jewish and Heathen Test. pp. 280, 281.

1b. p. 283.

10 The particulars, of which the above are only a faw, are well val. footed by Mr Bryant, p. 140.

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