authority of the kings of the earth, as the Jews expected, but by the evidences of his dominion in the kingdom of nature; which is a much greater dignity and authority than any of the kings of the earth ever pretended to, and is no less than divine. And his miracles, being generally wrought upon men, not only upon their bodies, as they were mostly when Christ was here upon earth, but, which is more, upon their minds, as they were mostly after the pouring out of the Spirit in the gift of tongues and other supernatural endowments, were the most proper confirmations possible of the truth of the gospel, which was designed for the making of men holy and happy.
Ninthly, I cannot but think that the methods taken for the propagation of this gospel, and the wonderful success of those methods, which are purely spiritual and heavenly, and destitute of all secular advantages and supports, plainly show that it was of God, for God was with it, and it could never have spread as it did, in the face of so much opposition, if it had not been accompanied with a power from on high. And the preservation of Christianity in the world to this day, notwithstanding the difficulties it has struggled with, is to me a standing miracle for the proof of it.
Lastly, I cannot but think that the gospel of Christ has had some influence upon my soul, has had such a command over me, and been such a comfort to me, as is a demonstration to myself, though it cannot be so to another, that it is of God. I have tasted in it, that the Lord is gracious; and the most subtle disputant cannot convince one who has tasted honey, that it is not sweet.
And now I appeal to Him who knows the thoughts and intents of the heart, that in all this I think freely, (if it be possible for a man to know that he does so,) and not under the power of any bias. Whether we have reason to think that those who without any colour of reason, not only usurp, but monopolize, the character of Freethinkers, do so, let those judge, who easily observe that they do not speak sincerely, but industriously dissemble their notions; and one instance I cannot but notice, of their unfair dealing with their readers—that when, for the diminishing of the authority of the New Testament, they urge the various readings of the original, and quote an acknowledgment of Mr. Gregory of Christ Church, in his preface to his Works, That no profane author whatsoever, &c. and yet suppress what immediately follows, as the sense of that learned man upon it, That this is an invincible reason for the scriptures' part, &c.
We then receive the books of the New Testament as our oracles; for it is evident that that excellent notion of Dr. Henry More's is true, that "they have a direct tendency to take us off from the animal life, and to bring us to the divine life."
But while we are thus maintaining the divine original and authority of the New Testament, as it has been received through all the ages of the church, we find our cause not only attacked by the enemies we speak of, but, in effect, betrayed by one who makes our New Testament almost double to what it really is, adding to it the Constitutions of the Apostles, collected by Clement, together with the Apostolical Canons, and making those to be of equal authority with the writings of the Evangelists, and preferable to the Epistles. By enlarging the lines of defence thus, without either cause or precedent,* [1]he gives great advantage to the invaders.
Those Constitutions of the Apostles have many things in them very good, and may be of use, as other human compositions. But to pretend that they were composed, as they profess themselves to be, by the twelve apostles in concert at Jerusalem, I Peter, saying this, I Andrew, saying that, &c. is the greatest imposition that can be practised upon the credulity of the simple.
1. It is certain, there were a great many spurious writings which, in the early days of the church, went under the names of the apostles and apostolical men; so that it has been always complained of as impossible to find out any thing but the canon of scripture, that could with any assurance be attributed to them. Baronius himself acknowledges it, Cum apostolorum nomine tam facta quam dicta reperiantur esse supposititia; nec sic quid de illis a veris sincerisque scriptoribus narratum sit integrum et incorruptum remanserit, in desperationem planè quandam animum dejiciunt posse unquam assequi quod verum certumque subsistat—Since so many of the acts and sayings ascribed to the apostles are found to be spurious, and even the narrations of faithful writers respecting them are not free from corruption, we must despair of ever being able to arrive at any absolute certainty about them. Ad. An. Christ. 44. sect. 42, &c. There were Acts under the names of Andrew the apostle, Philip, Peter, Thomas ; a Gospel under the name of Thaddeus, another of Barnabas, another of Bartholomew; a book concerning the infancy of our Saviour, another concerning his nativity, and many the like, which were all rejected as forgeries.
2. These Constitutions and Canons, among the rest, were condemned in the primitive church as apocryphal, and therefore justly rejected; because, though otherwise good, they pretended to be what really they were not, dictated by the twelve apostles themselves, as received from Christ. If Jesus Christ gave them such instructions, and they gave them in such a solemn manner to the church, as is pretended, it is unaccountable that there is not the least notice taken of any such thing done or designed in the Gospels, the Acts, or any of the Epistles.
They who have judged the most favourably of those Canons and Constitutions, have concluded that they were compiled by some officious persons under the name of Clement, toward the end of the second century, above 150 years after Christ's ascension, out of the common practice of the churches; that is, that which the compilers were most acquainted with, or had respect for; when at the same time we have reason to think that the far greater number of christian churches which by that time were planted, had Constitutions of their own, which if they had had the happiness to be transmitted to posterity, would have recommended themselves as well as these, or better. But as the legislators of old put a reputation upon their laws, by pretending to have received them from some deity or other, so church-governors studied to gain reputation to their sees, by placing some apostolical man or other at the head of their catalogue of bishops, (See Bishop Stillingfleet's Irenicum, p. 302.) and reputation to their Canons and Constitutions, by fathering them upon the apostles.
But how can it be imagined that the apostles should be all together at Jerusalem, to compose this book of Canons with so much solemnity, when we know that their commission was to go into all the world, and to preach the gospel to every creature. Accordingly, Eusebius tells us that Thomas went into Parthia, Andrew into Scythia, John into the lesser Asia; and we have reason to think that after their dispersion they never came together again, any more than the planters of the nations did after the Most High had separated the sons of Adam.
- ↑ Whiston._Ed.
