and of references to scripture, as the discourses of modern divines. Future teftimonies to the books of fcripture could only prove that they never loft their character or authority. SECT. II. When the fcriptures are quoted, or alluded to, they are quoted with peculiar refpect, as books fui generis, as poffeffing an authority which belonged to no other books, and as conclufive in all queftions and controverfies among ft Chriftians. BESIDES the general ftrain of reference and quotation which uniformly and strongly indicates this diftinction, the following may be regarded as specific teftimonies. I. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, the fixth in fucceffion from the apostles, and who flourished little more than a century after the books of the New Teftament were written, having occafion to quote one of our gofpels, writes thus: "Thefe things the holy fcriptures teach us, and all who were moved by the Holy Spirit, among whom John fays, 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 all being infpired, spoke by one and the fame Spirit of God." b No words can testify more ftrongly than thefe do, the high and peculiar respect in which these books were holden. II. A writer against Artemon, who may be fuppofed to come about one hundred and fifty-eight years after the publi cation of the fcriptures, in a paffage quoted by Eufebius, ufes thefe expreffions: "Poffibly what they (our adverfaries) fay, might have been credited, if first of all the divine fcriptures did not contradict them; and then the writings of certain brethren, more ancient than the times of Victor." The brethren mentioned by name, are Juftin Militiades, Tatian, Clement, Irenæus, Melito, with a general appeal to many more not named. This paffage proves, firft, that there was at that time a collection called divine fcriptures; fecondly, that these scriptures were esteemed of higher authority than the writings of the most early and celebrated Christians. a Lard. Cred. pr. ii. vol. I. p. 429. b Ib. F. 448. a III. In a piece afcribed to Hippolitus, who lived near the fame time, the author profeffes, in giving his correfpondent inftruction in the things about which he inquires, "to draw out of the facred fountain, and to fet before him from the sacred fcriptures, what may afford him fatisfaction." He then quotes immediately Paul's epiftles to Timothy, and afterwards many books of the New Teftament. This preface to the quotations carries in it a marked distinction betwixt our fcriptures and other books. IV. "Our affertions and difcourfes," faith Origen," "are unworthy of credit; we must receive the fcriptures as witnesses." After treating of the duty of prayer, he proceeds with his argument thus: "What we have faid may be proved from the divine fcriptures." In his books against Celfus, we find this paffage: That our religion teaches us to feek after wifdom, fhall be fhewn, both out of the ancient Jewish fcriptures which we alfo use, and out of those written fince Jefus, which are believed in the churches to be divine." Thefe expreffions afford abundant evidence of the peculiar and exclufive authority which the fcriptures poffeffed. V. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, whofe age lies close to that of Origen, earnestly exhorts Chriftian teachers in all doubtful cafes, "to go back to the fountain; and if the truth has in any cafe been fhaken, to recur to the gospels and apoftolic writings.' " "The precepts of the gofpel," fays he in another place, "are nothing less than authoritative divine leffons, the foundations of our hope, the fupports of our faith, the guides of our way, the fafeguards of our courfe to heaven." VI. Novatus, a Roman, contemporary with Cyprian, appeals to the fcriptures, as the authority by which all errors were to be repelled, and difputes decided. "That Chrift is not only man but God alfo, is proved by the facred authority of the divine writings.""The divine fcripture eafily detects and confutes the frauds of heretics." "It is not by the fault of the heavenly fcriptures, which never deceive." Stronger af fertions than thefe could not be used. VII At the distance of twenty years from the writer last cited, Anatolius a learned Alexandrian, and bishop of Laodicea, fpeaking of the rule for keeping Eafter, a question at a Ib. vol. III. p. 112. b Ib. p. 287, 288, 289. that day agitated with much earneftnefs, fays of those whom he oppofed, "they can by no means prove their point by the authority of the divine fcripture." VIII. The Arians, who fprung up about fifty years after this, argued ftrenuously against the ufe of the words confub. ftantial and effence, and like phrafes; "because they were not in fcripture." And in the fame ftrain, one of their advocates opens a conference with Auguftine, after the following manner : " If you fay what is reasonable, I must submit. If you allege any thing from the divine fcriptures, which are common to both, I must hear. But unfcriptural expreffions (quæ extra fcripturam funt) deferve no regard." Athanafius, the great antagonist of Arianifm, after having enumerated the books of the Old and New Testament, adds, "Thefe are the fountains of falvation, that he who thirsts may be fatisfied with the oracles contained in them. In thefe alone the doctrine of falvation is proclaimed. Let no man add to them, or take any thing from them." с IX. Cyril, bishop of Jerufalem, who wrote about twenty years after the appearance of Arianifm, ufes these remarkable words: "Concerning the divine and holy myfteries of faith, not the leaft article ought to be delivered without the divine fcriptures." We are affured, that Cyril's fcriptures were the fame as ours, for he has left us a catalogue of the books included under that name. d X. Epiphanius, twenty years after Cyril, challenges the Arians, and the followers of Origen," to produce any paffage of the Old or New Teftament, favouring their fentiments." XI. Phæbadius, a Gallic bifhop, who lived about thirty years after the council of Nice, teftifies, that "the bifhops of that council first confulted the facred volumes, and then declared their faith."e XII. Bafil, bishop of Cæfarea, in Cappadocia, contemporary with Epiphanius, fays, "that hearers inftructed in the fcriptures, ought to examine what is faid by their teachers, and to embrace what is agreeable to the fcriptures, and to reject what is otherwise.”f XIII. Ephraim, the Syrian, a celebrated writer of the fame times, bears this conclufive teftimony to the propofition which b Ib. vol. XII. p. 182. a Ib. vol. VII. p. 283, 284. e Ib. vol. VIII. p. 276. f Ib. vol. IX. p. 124. d Ib. p. 314. e Ib. vol. IX. p. 52. forms the fubject of our prefent chapter: "The truth written in the facred volume of the gofpel, is a perfect rule. Nothing can be taken from it, nor added to it, without great guilt.' "a XIV. If we add Jerome to thefe, it is only for the evidence which he affords of the judgment of preceding ages. Jerome obferves, concerning the quotations of ancient Chriftian writers, that is, of writers who were ancient in the year 400, that they made a distinction between books, fome they quoted as of authority, and others not: which observation relates to the books of fcripture, compared with other writings, apocryphal or heathen.b The fcriptures were in very early times collected into a diftin& volume. IGNATIUS, who was bishop of Antioch within forty years after the afcenfion, and who had lived and converfed with the apoftles, fpeaks of the gofpel and of the apoftles in terms which render it very probable, that he meant by the gofpel, the book or volume of the gofpels, and by the apoftles, the book or volume of their epiftles. His words in one place are, fleeing to the gofpel as the fiefh of Jefus, and to the apostles as the prefbytery of the church;" that is, as Le Clerc interprets them, "in order to understand the will of God, he fled to the gofpels, which he believed no less than if Chrift in the flesh had been fpeaking to him; and to the writings of the apostles," whom he esteemed as the prefbytery of the whole Chriftian church." It must be obferved, that about eighty years after this we have direct proof, in the writings of Clement of Alexandria,d that these two names, "gofpel" and " apostles," were the names by which the writings of the New Teftament, and the divifion of thefe writings, were ufually expreffed. Another paffage from Ignatius is the following:-"But the gofpel has fomewhat in it more excellent, the appearance of our Lord Jefus Chrift, his paffion, and refurrection."e a Ib. p. 202. b Vol. X. p. 123, 124. c Lard. Cred. pr. ii. vol. I. p. 180. c Ib. p. 182. And a third, "Ye ought to hearken to the prophets, but efpecially to the gofpel, in which the paffion has been manifefted to us, and the refurrection perfected." In this last paffage the prophets and the gofpel are put in conjunction; and as Ig natius undoubtedly meant by the prophets a collection of writings, it is probable that he meant the fame by the gospel, the two terms standing in evident parallelifm with each other. This interpretation of the word "gofpel" in the paffages 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," fay they," that went before were done, that the Lord might fhew us a martyrdom according to the gofpel, for he expected to be delivered up as the Lord alfo did."a And in another place, mend those who offer themfelves, forafmuch as the gofpel teaches us no fuch thing." In both thefe places, what is called the gospel feems to be the hiftory of Jefus Chrift, and of his doctrine. 66 we do not com If this be the true fenfe of the paffages, they are not only evidences of our propofition, but ftrong and very ancient proofs of the high esteem in which the books of the New Teftament were holden. II. Eufebius relates, that Quadratus and fome others, who were the immediate fucceffors of the apoftles, travelling abroad to preach Chrift, carried the gofpels with them, and delivered them to their converts. The words of Eufebius are," then travelling abroad, they performed the work of evangelifts, being ambitious to preach Chrift, and deliver the fcripture of the divine gospels." Eufebius had before him the writings both. of Quadratus himself, and of many others of that age, which are nów loft. It is reasonable, therefore, to believe, that he had good grounds for his affertion. What is thus recorded of the. gofpels took place within fixty, or at the moft feventy, years after they were published; and it is evident, that they muft, 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 apoftles; inafmuch as they were now, we find, collected into a volume, and the immediate fucceffors of the apostles, they who preached the religion of Chrift to those who had not b Ib. c. iv. a Ig. Ep. c. i. |