already heard it, carried the volume with them, and delivered it to their converts. III. Irenæus, in the year 178, puts the evangelic and apoftolic writings in connexion with the law and the prophets, manifeftly intending by the one a code or collection of Christian facred writing, as the other expreffed the code or collection of Jewish facred writings. And IV. Melito, at this time bishop of Sardis, writing to one Onefimus, tells his correfpondent, that he had procured an accurate account of the books of the OLD Teftament. The occurrence, in this paffage, 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 Teftament. V. In the time of Clement of Alexandria, about fifteen years after the last quoted teftimony, it is apparent that the Christian fcriptures were divided into two parts, under the general titles of the gofpels and the apoftles; and that both these were regarded as of the highest authority. One, out of many expreffions of Clement alluding to this distribution, is the following "There is a confent and harmony between the law and the prophets, the apoftles and the gofpel." c VI. The fame divifion, "prophets, gofpels, and apoftles," appears in Tertullian, the contemporary of Clement. The collection of the gofpels is likewife called by this writer the Evangelic Inftrument ;"e the whole volume, the "New Teftament ;" and the two parts, the "Gofpels and Apostles." VII. From many writers alfo of the third century, and ef pecially from Cyprian, who lived in the middle of it, it is colJected, that the Chriftian fcriptures were divided into two codes or volumes, one called the " gofpels or fcriptures of the Lord," the other, the "Apoftles or epiftles of the Apostles." g VIII. Eufebius, as we have already feen, takes fome pains to fhow, that the gofpel of St. John had been justly placed by the ancients "the fourth in order, and after the other three." l Thefe are the terms of his propofition; and the very introduc tion of fuch an argument proves inconteftibly, that the four gofpels had been collected into a volume to the exclufion of every a Ib. vol. I. p. 383. e Ib. vol. II. p. 574. g. Ib. vol. IV. p. 846. b Ib. p. 33. d Ib. p. 631. f Ib. p. 632. h lb. vol. VIII. p. 20. other r; that their order in the volume had been adjusted with much confideration; and that this had been done by those who were called ancients in the time of Eufebius. In the Dioclefian perfecution in the year 303, the fcriptures were fought out and burnt ; many fuffered death rather than deliver them up; and thofe who betrayed them to the perfecutors were accounted as lapsed and apoftate. On the other hand, Conftantine, after his converfion, gave directions for multiply. ing copies of the divine oracles, and for magnificently adorning them at the expense of the imperial treafury, what the Chrif tians of that age fo richly embellifhed in their profperity, and, which is more, fo tenacioufly preferved under perfecution, was the very volume of the New Teftament which we now read. b SECT. IV. Our prefent facred writings were foon diftinguished by appropriate names and titles of respect. I. POLYCARP: "I trust that ye are well exercised in the holy fcriptures-as in thefe fcriptures it is faid, Be ye angry and fin not, and let not the fun go down upon your wrath."c This paffage is extremely important; because it proves that, in the time of Polycarp, who had lived with the apostles, there were Christian writings distinguished by the name of "holy fcriptures," or facred writings. Moreover, the text quoted by Polycarp is a text found in the collection at this day. What alfo the fame Polycarp hath elsewhere quoted in the fame manner, may be confidered as proved to belong to the collection; and this comprehends St. Matthew's, and, probably, St. Luke's gofpel, the Acts of the Apoftles, ten epiftles of Paul, the first epistle of Peter, and the first of John. In another place Polycarp has thefe words: Whoever perverts the oracles of the Lord to his own lufts, and fays there is neither refurrection nor " It does not appear judgment, he is the firft-born of Satan.' what elfe Polycarp could mean by the "oracles of the Lord," but thofe fame "holy fcriptures," or facred writings, of which he had spoken before. b Ib. p. 43.2. d Ib. p. 223. * Ib. p. 222 a Ib. vol. VII. p. 214. et feq. II. Juftin Martyr, whofe apology was written about thirty years after Polycarp's epiftle, exprefsly cites fome of our prefent hiftories under the title of GOSPEL, and that, not as a name by him first ascribed to them, but as the name by which they were generally known in his time. His words are thefe :-"For the apostles in the memoirs compofed by them, which are called gofpels, have thus delivered it, that Jefus commanded them to take bread, and give thanks." a There exists no doubt, but that, by the memoirs above-mentioned, Justin meant our present historical scriptures, for, throughout his works, he quotes these, and ́ no others. III. Dionyfius, bishop of Corinth, who came thirty years. after Juftin, in a paffage preferved in Eufebius, (for his works are loft) fpeaks of " the fcriptures of the Lord."b IV. And at the fame time, or very nearly fo, by Irenæus, bishop of Lyons in France, they are called "divine fcriptures," -"divine oracles,"" fcriptures of the Lord,"-" evangelic and apoftolic writings." The quotations of Irenæus prove decidedly, that our prefent gofpels, and these alone, together with the Acts of the apostles, were the historical books comprehended by him under thefe appellations. V. St. Matthew's gofpel is quoted by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, contemporary with Irenæus, under the title of the ❝evangelic voice ;" and the copious works of Clement of Alexandria, published within fifteen years of the fame time, afcribe to the books of the New Testament the various titles of "facred books,"" divine fcriptures,"-" divinely infpired fcriptures," -"fcriptures of the Lord,". -"the true evangelical canon." VI. Tertullian, who joins on with Clement, befide adopting most of the names and epithets above noticed, calls the gospels our digefta," in allufion, as it should feem, to fome collection of Roman laws then extant. VII. By Origen, who came thirty years after Tertullian, the fame, and others no less strong titles, are applied to the Chrif tian fcriptures; and, in addition thereunto, this writer frequently fpeaks of the " Old and New Testament,”- "the ancient and new fcriptures,"" the ancient and new oracles."h c The reader will obferve the remotenefs of these two writers in Country and fituation. d Ib. p. 343, et feq. e Ib. p. 427. f Ib. vol. II. p. 515. g Ib. p. 630. h Ib. vol. III. p. 280. VIII. In Cyprian, who was not twenty years later, they are "books of the fpirit,"- "divine fountains,"" fountains of the divine fulness. "a The expreffions we have thus quoted are evidences of high and peculiar respect. They all occur within two centuries from the publication of the books. Some of them commence with the companions of the apostles; and they increase in number and variety, through a feries of writers, touching upon one another, and deduced from the first age of the religion. SECT. V. Our feriptures were publickly read and expounded in the religious affemblies of the early Chriflians. I. JUSTIN MARTYR, who wrote in the year 140, which was feventy or eighty years after fome, and lefs, probably, after others of the gofpels were published, giving in his first apology, an account to the emperor of the Christian worship, has this remarkable paffage : The memoirs of the apoftles, or the writings of the prophets, are read according as the time allows, and when the reader has ended, the prefident makes a discourse, exhorting to the imitation of fo excellent things."b ny. A few fhort obfervations will fhow the value of this teftimo 1. The "memoirs of the apoftles," Juftin in another place exprefsly tells us are what are called " gofpels ;" and that they were the gofpels, which we now ufe, is made certain by Juftin's numerous quotations of them, and his filence about any others. 2. Juftin defcribes the general ufage of the Chriftian church. 3. Juftin does not fpeak of it as recent or newly instituted, but in the terms in which men speak of established customs. II. Tertullian, who followed Justin at the distance of about fifty years, in his account of the religious affemblies of Christians as they were conducted in his time, fays, "We come together to recollect the divine fcriptures; we nourish our faith, raise our hope, confirm our truft, by the facred word."c III. Eufebius records of Origen, and cites for his authority the letters of bishops contemporary with Origen, that, when he a Ib. vol. IV. p. 844. b lb. vol. I. p. 273. Ib. vol. II. p. 628. went into Palestine about the year 216, which was only 16 years after the date of Tertullian's teftimony, he was defired by the bishops of that country to discourse and expound the fcriptures publickly in the church, though he was not yet ordained a prefbyter. This anecdote recognizes the ufage, not only of reading, but of expounding, the fcriptures; and both as fubfifting in fur force. Origen also himself bears witness to the fame practice: "This (fays he) we do, when the fcriptures are read in the church, and when the difcourfe for explication is delivered to the people.' " And, what is a ftill more ample testimony, many homilies of his upon the fcriptures of the New Testament delivered by him in the affemblies of the church, are still extant. IV. Cyprian, whofe age was not twenty years lower than that of Origen, gives his people an account of having ordained two perfons, who were before confeffors, to be readers, and what they were to read, appears by the reafon which he gives for his choice:-"Nothing (fays Cyprian) can be more fit, than that he, who has made a glorious confeffion of the Lord, fhould read publickly in the church; that he who has shown himself willing to die a martyr, fhould read the gofpel of Chrift, by which martyrs are made."c V. Intimations of the fame cuftom may be traced in a great number of writers in the beginning and throughout the whole of the fourth century. Of thefe teftimonies I will only use one as being, of itself, exprefs and full. Auguftine, who appeared near the conclufion of the century, difplays the benefit of the Chriftian religion on this very account, the public reading of the fcriptures in the churches, "where (fays he) is a confluence of all forts of people of both fexes, and where they hear how they ought to live well in this world, that they may de ferve to live happily and eternally in another." And this cuf tom he declares to be univerfal: "The canonical books of fcripture being read every where, the miracles therein recorded are well known to all people."d It does not appear that any books, other than our prefent fcriptures, were thus publickly read, except that the epiftle of Clement was read in the church of Corinth, to which it was addreffed, and in fome others; and that the Shepherd of Hera mas was read in many churches. a Ib. vol. III. p. 68. Ib. vol. IV. p. 842. b Ib. p. 302. |