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one of the twelve apostles, had preached the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to the gospel of Matthew, which he brought back with him to Alexandria, 'written in Hebrew letters. There are also extant many ' commentaries of this person upon the holy scripture; but he was more profitable to the churches by his discourses. 'He taught under the reign of Severus, and Antoninus 'called Caracalla.'

I have placed Pantanus at the year 192, because it is the soonest that we can suppose him returned from Ethiopia.

St. Jerom says, the school at Alexandria had been in being from the time of St. Mark: and Eusebius, from ancient time. Pantænus, however, is the first master of it of which there is any mention made in antiquity, unless we admit the account given by Philip Sidetes, of which we have spoken before; who says, Athenagoras had this office. But it is somewhat strange, that no notice should be taken of this by Clement, nor Örigen, nor Eusebius.

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Jerom says, 'there were extant commentaries of Pantænus upon the scripture:' but he gives no particular account of them, and says, he was more profitable by his discourses than his writings. Nor has Eusebius mentioned the title of any work of Pantænus. There is nothing now remaining of him, except a short passage in the Ecloga, ascribed to Clement of Alexandria, containing a rule for the better understanding the style of the prophets. It might be taken out of a commentary upon the nineteenth psalın.

Eusebius mentions no authority for what he relates of Pantænus, and throughout his account mixes such phrases as these, it is said,' or reported,' and the like. It is said, Bartholomew had preached the gospel before in India, and that he found the gospel of Matthew there in Hebrew. St. Jerom adds, that he brought it home with him to Alexaudria, without any ground for it, so far as appears: and, as Richard Simon thinks, mistaking the words of Eusebius, who only says, that the christians of Ethiopia had preserved that Hebrew gospel till the arrival of Pantænus. And farther the same critic says, that if this story of Eusebius be true, these first christians of Ethiopia were

Histoire Crit. du Texte du N. T. ch. iv. p. 41.

Ibid. See likewise Du Pin, who doubts of the truth of this relation, Biblioth. des Auteurs Ecc. Tom. i. Pantænus, et Response aux Remarques sur a Bibliotheque, &c. ch. vii. at the end of the sixth century.

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descended from the Jews, and spake the same language with them that lived in Judea.

I think indeed, this story is of no great importance, it not being supported by the authority of any ancient writer of that time; though it could not be quite omitted here.

And if any should be therefore of opinion, that I have been too long in my account of Pantanus, I would observe, that, as I was obliged to mention him, it could not be amiss to relate his history here at length. It is true, it affords not much concerning this part of our design; but it is very suitable to the general design of this work, the Credibility of the Gospel History,' to show the merit of the professors of christianity on account of learning, diligence, zeal, remarkable integrity, or any other laudable qualifications. And though we need some particular information concerning the journey into Ethiopia, and the gospel which Pantanus is said to have found there, it cannot be doubted but he was president of the catechetical school of Alexandria, and a man of eminent learning. This is evident from the testimonies here alleged, several of which have no dependence at all upon this story about the Hebrew gospel.

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CHAP. XXII.

ST. CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.

1. His history, time, works, and character. II. Three passages of Clement from Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History, concerning the four Gospels, particularly St. Mark's Gospel. III. Difficulties in these passages considered. IV. Remarks upon the same passages. V. More passages concerning the four Gospels, from the remaining works of Clement. VI. Of the Acts of the Apostles. VII. St. Paul's Epistles. VIII. The Catholic Epistles. IX. The Revelation. X. A summary account of the books of the N. T. received by him. XI. General titles and divisions of the Scriptures, and respect for them. XII. Whether he quotes other writings, as of authority. And first of ecclesiastical writings. 1. St. Barnabas. 2. Clement of Rome. 3. Hermas. 4. A general remark. XIII. Apocryphal writings quoted by him. 1. The Gospels according to the Hebrews, and the Egyptians. 2. The preaching of Peter. 3. The Revelation of Peter. 4. Acts of Peter. 5. Traditions of Matthias. 6. Sayings of Christ. XIV. Of the Sibylline poems.

I. TITUS FLAVIUS CLEMENS, usually called St. Clement of Alexandria, flourished, according to Cave, from the year 192 and onwards. He is said by some c to be a native of Athens: by others, of Alexandria, where he certainly resided a good while. Eusebius intimates, that he was originally a heathen. We do not certainly know the time of his birth, or death. He flourished plainly in the latter part of the second, and beginning of the third century, in the reigns of Severus, and his son Antoninus Caracalla; that is, between 192 and 217. Du Pine supposes he lived to the time of Heliogabalus, and that he did not die before the year 220; but most are of opinion his death happened sooner.

For a more particular account of this author than I have room to give, may be seen Fabric. Bib. Gr. Tom. v. p. 102, &c. Du Pin, Bibl. des Aut. Ecc. et Tillemont, Memoires Eccl. Tom. iii. Le Clerc, Bibl. Univ. Tom. x. p. 175. b Hist. Lit. Epiphan. Hær. 32. c. 6. p. 213. B. e Biblioth. in Clement d'

Præp. Ev. 1. ii. c. 2. p. 61. Alex. at the beginning.

He has the title of presbyter given him by several of the ancients: he was likewise president of the catechetical school of Alexandria. He seems to have succeeded Pantænus, in that office, upon his going into Ethiopia, about the year 190 and it is very probable that, upon the publication of the edicts of Severus against the christians, in the tenth year of his reign, A. D. 202, Clement was obliged to lay down that office, and likewise to retire from Alexandria. We do not certainly know what eminent men proceeded from Clement's school: buts Eusebius has expressly assured us, that Origen, when young, was his hearer; and it is probable that Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, had been taught by him.

Clement wrote a great number of books: there are catalogues of his works in Eusebius and Jerom, which yet seem not to contain a complete enumeration of them.

The works of Clement now remaining are, an Exhortation to the Gentiles; The Pædagogue, or Instructor, in three books; and the Stromata, or Various Discourses, in eight books: and a small treatise entitled, Who is the Rich Man that may be saved. The Stromata were written after the death of Commodus, in the reign of Severus, as Eusebius k has observed from a passage of the work itself. Dodwell' was of opinion, that all the works of Clement which are remaining, were written between the beginning of the year 193 and the end of the year 195.

Beside these there is frequent mention in m Eusebius of another book of Clement, called Hypotuposes, or Institutions, which is lost. But we have in Greek two small pieces, one called an Epitome of the Writings of Theodotus, and the Oriental doctrine; the other, Extracts from the Prophets; both which are generally supposed to be collected out of the lost book of Institutions, or to be fragments of it. There is likewise in Latin a small treatise or fragment, called Adumbrations on some of the Catholic Epistles which also, if it be Clement's, was probably translated from the same work called Institutions; which, as we know from Eusebius and others, contained short explications of many books both of the Old and New Tes

tament.

f See Tillemont, Mem. E. St. Clement d' A. Art. ii. and Euseb. H. E.

1. vi. p. 201, 208.

H. E. 1. vi. cap. 13.

k H. E. l. vi. cap. 6.

H. E. l. i. cap. 12. 1. ii. cap. 1. p. 38. c. 9, et c. 15. 1. vi. cap. 13, 14.

■ H. E. 1. vi. cap. 14.

There are great commendations of Clement in many of the ancients. I shall put down some of them. But first of all I would take a passage from himself, in part also cited by Eusebius: because it will be of use to inform us of his character, and his authority in the things we shall allege from him.

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He says, in the first book of his Stromata: This work I have composed not for ostentation, but as an artless image and picture of the powerful and lively discourses of those blessed and truly worthy men, which I have had the happiness to hear.' The following part of the passage is somewhat obscure. But he speaks of one, by whom he had been taught in Greece: another in Italy: and two more, as it seems, in the East: and another in Egypt, supposed by Eusebius to be Pantænus, of whom he speaks in this manner: 'But the last whom I met with was the first in merit. After a long search I found him lying hid in Egypt, and in him I acquiesced. He was indeed a Sicilian bee, who gathered the flowers of the prophetic and apostolic meadow, and filled the minds of his hearers with sincere knowledge. These men [he intends his masters, of whom he had before spoken] having preserved the true tradition of the blessed doctrine in a direct succession from the holy apostles, Peter, James, John, and Paul, as from father to son, (though few are like their fathers,) have lived by the blessing of God to our time, to lodge in our minds the seeds of the ancient and apostolical doctrine.'

It appears from this passage, that our Clement had travelled, and was inquisitive; and that what he valued above all things was the pure, ancient, and apostolical doctrine.

I shall next put down some testimonies of the ancient writers concerning this father; and the first must be that of Alexander, bishop of Jerusalem, contemporary with Clement, and perhaps one of his scholars. Alexander, in a letter to the Antiochians, written before he was bishop of Jerusalem, in the heat of the persecution under Severus, speaks to them of Clement in this manner: This letter I "have sent you by Clement, a blessed presbyter, a virtuous and approved man, whom also ye know, and will

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• H. E. 1. v. cap. 11.

P P. 274. B. C.

* Οἱ μεν την αληθη της μακαρίας σώζοντες διδασκαλίας παραδοσιν, ευθύς από Πέτρες τε και Ιακωβο, Ιωαννα τε και Παυλο, των άγιων αποτόλων, παις παρα πατρος εκδεχομενος ολιγοι δε οἱ πατρασιν ὁμοιοι ήκον δη συν θεω και εις μας τα προγονικά εκείνα και αποτολικά καταθησόμενοι σπερματα. Ibid. p. 274. D. 275. A. * H. E. 1. vi. cap. xi.