the Council of Nice, which is in Labbé". That I might not omit any thing of this sort, I here give the reader that learned doctor's account of it. "The Simonians, (he supposes,) i. e. "the followers of Simon Magus, forged this Gospel, which, "according to the number of our four Gospels, they divided "into four parts; and at length about the time of Irenæus, "borrowing a title from the holy fathers of the church, who "wittily concluded there were four Gospels, because there "were four regions of the world, (or four principal winds o,) "they called it The Book of the four Corners or Regions of "the World." Agreeable to this we read in the book called The Constitutions of the Apostles P, that "Simon and Cleo"bius, and their followers, compiled books under the name of "Christ and of his disciples, in order to deceive," &c. It is to be rejected by Prop. IV. V. and VI.

of

No. LX. The Revelation of Stephen.

I HAVE not found this any where besides in the Decree pope Gelasius thus:

Revelatio, quæ appellatur Ste

phani, apocrypha.

The Revelation under the name of Stephen is apocryphal.

Apocryphal by Prop. IV. V. and VI.

CHAP. XXXIX.

The Gospel of Tatian. It was a compendious harmony of four Gospels. He seems to have made use of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, or the Gospel of the Nazarenes. This proved by several arguments. The Harmony now extant among the orthodoxographa is not this old one of Tatian. An account of Tatian, his works and principles. The Gospel of Thaddeus. The catholic Epistle of Themison (mentioned by Apollonius). He was a Montanist, and lived as early as Montanus. The time of the rise of Montanism, about the year of Christ CLXXIV. An account of that heresy. A digression concerning the agreement of the Mahometan

scheme with that of the Montanists and Manichees Mr. Toland's mistake in this matter.

No. LXI. The Gospel of Tatian.

Τ.

ALTHOUGH several ancient writers make mention of a work of Tatian, relating to the Gospels; yet I have cited none of them besides Eusebius and Epiphanius, because no one else entitles his work a Gospel. It is first mentioned

By Eusebius 9.

Χρῶνται μὲν οὖν οὗτοι Νόμῳ καὶ Προφήταις, καὶ Εὐαγγελίοις, ἰδίως ἑρμηνεύοντες τῶν ἱερῶν τὰ νοήματα γραφῶν· βλασφημοῦντες δὲ Παῦλον τὸν ἀποστόλον, ἀθετοῦσιν αὐτοῦ τὰς ἐπιστολὰς, μήδε τὰς Πράξεις τῶν ̓Αποστόλων καταδεχόμενοι. Ὁ μέν τοι γε πρότερος αὐτῶν ἀρχηγὸς ὁ Τατιανὸς, συνάφειάν τινα καὶ συναγωγὴν οὐκ οἶδ ̓ ὅπως τῶν Εὐαγγελίων συνθεὶς, τὸ διὰ τεσσάρων τοῦτο προσωνόμασεν, ὃ καὶ παρά τισιν εἰσέτι νῦν φέρεται.

They (the Encratites or Severians) do make use of the law and the prophets, and the gospels, but expound the sacred scriptures according to their own senti

ments.

They speak evil of the apostle Paul, and reject his Epistles ; neither do they receive the Acts of the Apostles. The first author of their sect was Tatian, who made I know not what sort of a harmony of the Gospels, and called it, The Gospel of the Four ; which is even to this day in the hands of some.

By Epiphanius.

Λέγεται δὲ τὸ διὰ τεσσάρων Εὐαγγέλιον ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγενῆσθαι, ὅπερ κατὰ Ἑβραίους τινὲς καλοῦ

σι.

They say, that the Gospel of the Four was made by him, (viz. Tatian, which some call The Gospel according to the Hebrews.

From both these places it is evident, that this composure of Tatian was no other than a Harmony of four Gospels; it seems to have been a sort of epitome of the whole history that is in our four Gospels; for Theodoret, a bishop of Cyprus, tells us, that "many, not only of the impious sect that followed « Tatian, but of the orthodox Christians, (τὴν τῆς συνθήκης και κουργίαν οὐκ ἐγνωκότες, ἀλλ ̓ ἀπλούστερον ὡς συντόμῳ τῷ βιβλίῳ χρησάμενοι,) not perceiving the craft intended in the com

"posure, innocently made use of it as a more compendious ❝ volume." This is sufficient intimation to us, that there were in the work some heretical opinions, or at least what that bishop thought such. These, if I may conjecture, seem to have been some passages or histories taken out of the Gospel of the Nazarenes or Hebrews; which I suppose Tatian made use of in compiling his Harmony, as much or perhaps more than the Greek copies of St. Matthew; and this I am inclined to think,

1. Because Epiphanius assures us, "This work of Tatian "was called by some The Gospel of the Hebrews; and this "cannot be supposed to have happened from any other cause "more probable." I know indeed Valesiust, and after him Mr. Fabritius", boldly asserts, that "Epiphanius was mis"taken, at least that those he speaks of were mistaken, who "said that it was called The Gospel of the Hebrews;" and the reason Valesius offers is, that "the Gospel of the Hebrews "was much older than Tatian." But nothing can be more weak than this. Does it follow, that because the Gospel of the Hebrews was before the time of Tatian, that therefore upon Tatian's making use of it, and translating a good part of it into his Harmony, his work could not be called by that name? On the contrary, nothing is more probable, than that his work should be thus called, upon that supposition.

2. I argue it further as probable, that Tatian made use of the Hebrew Gospel, because as the genealogy was omitted in that, (see above, Chap. XXV. No. XI.) so also it was in the Gospel of Tatian, as is expressly testified by Theodoret in the place now cited.

3. Tatian was by birth a Syrian, first spread his notions in Mesopotamia, and consequently well knowing, and probably well acquainted with the Gospel of the Nazarenes; as well knowing the language of it, and probably himself one of that sect.

4. Ambrose, in a passage wherein he undoubtedly refers to this Gospel of Tatian, intimates, that it contained several heretical and impious things: many, says he, have jumbled into

t Annot. in Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 29.

u Cod. Apoc. Nov. Testam. par. 1. p. 349.

x See what he saith of himself in the end of his Oratio ad Græcos, at the end of Justin Martyr's works, and Epiphan. Hæres. 46. §. 2.

one book those things out of the four Gospels, which they found agreeable to their malignant principles y.

If this account be true, we are to conclude it apocryphal by the same arguments (at least many of them) as those by which I proved the Hebrew Gospel of the Ebionites to be so above, Chap. XXIX. If it be not true, then it is only to be looked upon as a composure out of our present Gospels.

There is indeed now extant among the orthodoxographa a Harmony ascribed to Tatian; but, as has been well observed by several learned men, (Valesius2, Fabritiusa, Dr. Mill, and others,) it cannot be the same with this, which we are now discussing, because it hath the genealogy in it, which this had not, as appears from what is above said. I shall conclude this section with some account of Tatian. He was, after having made a considerable figure as a tutor of oratory, a disciple of Justin Martyr, continuing an ornament to the church while he lived, but afterwards he fell into heresy; he wrote a prodigious number of books, of which the most valuable one is now extant, viz. that against the Gentiles at the end of Justin Martyr's works.

Irenæus and Epiphanius d add some account of his principles, as that he coincided with the Valentinian doctrine of the Eones, denied the salvation of Adam, held all sorts of marriage unlawful, and as criminal as adultery. He is reported to have adulterated St. Paul's Epistles by changing their phraseology. He lived in the time of Marcus Antoninus Verus, and Lucius Commodusf; but a more particular account of his age may be seen in Mr. Dodwell's Dissertation on Irenæus, 4. §. 32, 33.

No. LXI. The Gospel of Thaddeus.

OF this I know no more than that it is mentioned by pope Gelasius in his Decree thus:

But Themison, who was most excessively covetous, had not the evidences of having been a martyr, but by the abundance of his money purchased immunity. And when upon that account he ought

N°. LXIII. The Catholic Epistle of Themison. THE Montanists, though a very considerable sect, do not seem to have feigned many books for the support of their doctrines. Apollonius, who wrote against them, as he says, just forty years after their rise, viz. about the year of Christ CCXIV, mentions a composure of Themison, one of their confessors, resembling the apostles. His words are, Ἔτι δὲ καὶ Θεμίσων ὁ τὴν ἀξιόπιστον πλεονεξίαν ἠμφιεσμένος, ὁ μὴ βαστάσας τῆς ὁμολογίας τὸ σημεῖον, ἀλλὰ πλήθει χρημάτων ἀποθέμενος τὰ δεσμά· δέον ἐπὶ τούτῳ ταπεινοφρονεῖν, ὡς μάρτυς καυχώμενος, ἐτόλμησε μιμούμενος τὸν ἀπόστολον, καθολικήν τινα συνταξάμενος ἐπιστολὴν, κατηχεῖν μὲν τοὺς ἄμεινον αὐτοῦ πεπιστευ κότας· συναγωνίζεσθαι δὲ τοῖς τῆς κενοφωνίας λόγοις· βλασφημῆσαι δὲ εἰς Κύριον καὶ τοὺς ἀποστόλους καὶ τὴν ἁγίαν ἐκκλησίαν.

dè

rather to have been humble, he exalted himself as a martyr, and was so impudent as to imitate the apostle, and to compose a certain Catholic Epistle, pretending thereby to give instruction to those, who were better Chris

tians than himself, and contending for the ridiculous doctrine of the Montanists, and speaking evil of our Lord and his apostles, and the holy churchs.

This book appears, not only by its pompous title, but the whole design of it, to have pretended to inspiration, which was at that time the great support of the Montanist heresy. Of this Themison, its author, I find no mention besides in this place of Eusebius. He lived very near, if not in the time of Montanus, (viz. the year of Christ CLXXIV. according to the Chronicon of Eusebius,) because Apollonius, who wrote against the Montanists and against Themison, wrote his book but forty years after the Montanist heresy first began (as himself says h). Besides, it seems very probable (as Valesius has well observed i) from several parts of this fragment of Apollo

g Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. 5. c. 18. h Apud Euseb. loc. cit.

i Annot. in loc. cit. Euseb. I observe, that Epiphanius, exposing the Montanists, because their pretended

prophecies were not accomplished, (Hær. 48. §. 2.) adds, " that from the "time of their being given out to the "time of his writing, which," says he, "was in the twelfth year of Valen