251 published in the name of Plautus which were not his. Some works were ascribed to " Virgil, and Horace, which were not theirs. The Greek and Roman critics distinguished the genuine and spurious works of those famous writers. The primitive christians acted in the like manner: they did not presently receive every thing proposed to them; they admitted nothing which was not well recommended. Says Serapion, bishop of Antioch, in his examination of the gospel of Peter, Wer receive Peter and the other apostles, as Christ; but as skilful men we reject those writings which are falsely ascribed to them.' We have seen many proofs of the caution and circumspection of christians in former times. For a good while, the epistle to the Hebrews, some of the catholic epistles, and the Revelation, were doubted of by many, when other books of the New Testament were universally acknowledged. The titles of the numerous Gospels and Acts above mentioned, and the remains of them, whether entire, or fragments only, are monuments of the care, skill, and good judgment of the primitive christians, and of the presidents of the churches, and their other learned guides and conductors; and we have all the satisfaction which can be reasonably desired, that the books received by them were received upon good ground, and that others were as justly rejected. If these observations are right, (as I hope they are,) they may be sufficient to show, that the books now, and for a long time, called apocryphal,' or 'pseudepigraphal,' afford no valid argument against either the genuineness or the authority of the books of the New Testament, generally received, as written by apostles and evangelists. " Quamvis igitur multa evdertypapa, id est, falsâ inscriptione, sub alieno nomine sint prolata, ut Thyestes tragoedia hujus poëtæ, quam Varius edidit pro suâ, et alia hujuscemodi; tamen Bucolica liquido Virgilii esse minime dubitandum est. Donat. in Vita Virgil. • Venerunt in manus et Elegi sub titulo ejus, et Epistola prosâ oratione, quasi commendans se Mæcenati. Sed utraque falsa puto. Nam Elegi vulgares, Epistola etiam obscura. Quo vitio minime tenebatur. Sueton. in Vitâ Horat. P Vol. ii. p. 264. A HISTORY OF THE APOSTLES AND EVANGELISTS, WRITERS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. CHAP. 1. General denominations of the collection of sacred books received by christians. I. Scripture. II. Bible. III. Canon. IV. Old and New Testament. V. Instrument. VI. Digest. VII. Gospel. I. ONE of the general denominations of the sacred books is Scripture, or Scriptures, literally or primarily signifying writing. But by way of eminence and distinction the books in highest esteem are called Scripture, or the Scrip tures. This word occurs often in the New Testament, in the gospels, the Acts, and the epistles. Whereby we perceive, that in the time of our Saviour and his apostles this word was in common use, denoting the books received by the Jewish people, as the rule of their faith. To them have been since added by christians the writings of the apostles and evangelists, completing the collection of books, received by them as sacred and divine. Some of the places, where the word scripture is used in the singular number for the books of the Old Testament, are these: 2 Tim. iii. 16, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God." And Luke iv. 21; John ii. 22; Acts i. 16; viii. 32, 35; Rom. iv. 3; Gal. iii. 8; James ii. 8, 23; 1 Pet. ii. 62; Pet. i. 20. Scriptures, in the plural number, in these following, and many other places. Matt. |