By RUFFIN. The Judgment of Peter. Exposit. in Symbol. Apostol. §. 36. By INNOCENT I. Books forged under the name of Matthias. Books forged under the name of James the Less. Books forged under the names of Peter and John, wrote by Lentius a. Books forged under the name of Andrew, wrote by Nexocharistes b and Leonides. Books forged under the name of Thomas. Epist. 3. ad Exuper. Tholos. Episc. §. 7. The Acts of Andrew. By GELASIUS. The Acts of Peter. The Gospel of Barnabas. The Gospel of Bartholomew. The Gospel of Andrew. The Gospels corrupted by Lucian. The Gospels corrupted by Hesychius c. The Books of Lentitius d. The Acts of Thecla and Paul. The Revelation of Thomas. The Revelation of Paul. The Revelation of Stephen. See the decree under Gelasius's name, de Libris Apocryph. apud Gratian. Distinct. 15. c. 3. e Whether, as some imagine, it was wrote within my time or no, I shall not here inquire; only observe, that if it was not, it was so very near it, that I thought it necessary to insert it. These are all the apocryphal books, not extant, which I have been able to find any mention of in the writers of the four first centuries after our Saviour. I proposed, indeed, to have annexed here the catalogue of the books still extant in like c Al. Isitius. -. d Al. Leucius. a Al. Leucius. b Al. Xenocharides. Et apud Concil. Sanct. tom. 4. p. 1260. manner as the not extant; but this catalogue will be so necessary in the third part of this work, that I shall defer the producing it in full, or at large, till then; and in the mean time desire the reader to be content with the following general ac count. The apocryphal books extant are, such as Our Saviour's Letter to Abgarus. Our Saviour's Letter, which fell down from Heaven at Jerusalem, directed to a Priest named Leopas, in the City Eris. The Constitutions of the Apostles. The Creed of the Apostles. The Apostolical Epistles of Barnabas, Clemens, Ignatius, and Polycarp. The Shepherd of Hermas. The Gospel of the Infancy of our Saviour. The Prot-Evangelium of St. James. The Gospel of Nicodemus. The Martyrdom of Thecla, or Acts of Paul. St. Paul's Six Letters to Seneca, &c. Upon the whole, we may see, how great the number of spurious and apocryphal pieces was in the ages next after our Saviour. CHAP. IV. Reasons assigned, why there were so many apocryphal pieces so early in the Christian church. MANY who are not acquainted with the first writers of Christianity, will, no doubt, be surprised to see so large a catalogue of books, so early written under such specious titles: before I proceed therefore, it may not be improper to observe, how it came to pass that the number of them became so large, or for what reasons they were wrote. And, 1. The very great number of heresies and divisions, that arose among the Christians soon after the publishing of the Gospel, I assign as the principal cause of this multitude of books. It is indeed strange, that a religion so exactly calcu lated to promote unity, should have been so much abused, and its professors divided into so many various parties, and different denominations, as we find they were immediately after our Lord's ascension. Hegesippus indeed tells us f, that "till Tra"jan's time (near which himself lived) the church continued "as a pure and uncorrupted virgin :" but this (as learned men have observed) must be candidly understood %, not as though there were at this time no heresies arose in the church, but that they had not yet so much spread themselves, and disturbed the peace of the church: for it is certain, that even in the apostles' times many had perverted the great truths of Christianity; St. Paul often hints at such in his epistles h; Peter i and Judek do the same; and John expressly mentions the Nicolaitans and others. In their time lived Simon Magus, to whom so many heresies owed their original. It would be tedious to mention the heresies of the second century, the various sorts of Gnostics in, the Valentinians, Menandrians, Nicolaitans, &c. the Nazarenes, Ebionites, Cerinthians, Carpocratians, Montanists, the followers of Cerdon, Marcion, Tatian, &c. He who has a mind, may see large catalogues of these in Irenæus, Epiphanius, Austin, &c. What concerns me to observe is, that upon account of these differing parties, a great part of those books were composed, which make up the foregoing catalogue; each party striving to recommend and propagate their principles and tenets under the great name of some apostle or disciple of our Saviour. This will largely appear in the particular examination of the books; at present it will be sufficient, to support the observation from the express testimonies of some ancient writers. Irenæus n tells us, "the Gnostics had in his time forged an "innumerable multitude of spurious and apocryphal books, "which they spread abroad in order to pervert ignorant and unwary persons." Hegesippus who lived at the same time, in a dissertation concerning the apocryphal books of the New f Apud Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 32. et 1. 4. c. 22. Vales. ad prior. loc. Euseb. et Spanheim. Histor. Christian. Secul. 1. §. 14. init. h 2 Cor. xi. 26. Gal. i. 6, &c. ii. 4, &c. 2 Tim. ii. 17. i 2 Pet. iii. 16. k Jude 4. and 12. 1 Rev. ii. 15. and 20. in The learned Dr. Hammond, in his Annotations on St. Paul's Epistles, meets with them continually there. n Advers. Hæres. 1. 1. c. 17. 'Aμútnτον πλῆθος ἀποκρύφων καὶ νόθων γραφῶν, ἃς αὐτοὶ ἔπλασαν, παρεισφέρουσιν εἰς κατάπληξιν τῶν ἀνοήτων, καὶ τὰ τῆς ἀληθείας μὴ ἐπισταμένων γράμματα. Testamento, assures us, "they were many of them made by "the heretics of that age." If any regard be to be given to the Constitutions of the Apostles, not as a sacred, but an ancient book, we are there told P, "the ungodly wrote several "books in their name; that Simon and Cleobius, and their "followers, did compile poisonous books under the name of "Christ and his disciples, and do carry them about in order "to deceive," &c. 2. It is not improbable, that some of the forementioned books were composed by honest and pious men, with design to preserve some miracles and discourses of our Saviour, which they had received by an undoubted tradition, and did not meet with in any of the authentic Gospels. It can hardly be thought, but Papias, and such others, who, like him, were so industrious in procuring all accounts they could of our Lord's sayings and actions, would, out of the same principle, transmit them to others; which accounts, falling afterwards into the hands of some zealous and well-meaning persons, were, either through mistake, or perhaps a more pious than honest design, published under the name of some one of our Lord's apostles or followers, and that sometimes with many additions and interpolations. The learned Casaubon (than whom no one was either more acquainted with, or more judicious in Christian antiquities) has observed this, in his dissertations against Baronius 9; "I cannot," says he, "but much resent the practice "of many in the earliest ages of the church, who reckoned it 66 an action very meritorious to make additions of their own to "the truths of the gospel, with this view, that Christianity "might meet with a better reception among the Gentiles." They called these, officious lies, contrived for a pious end. This produced innumerable books in those ages, wrote by men who were not bad, under the name of our Saviour, his apostles, and followers. Among these books, that excellent critic places the Sibylline Oracles, and several of the preceding catalogue. But, of all these, none seems to me more likely to have proceeded from this cause, than that famous book in an • Ἐπὶ τῶν αὐτοῦ χρόνων πρὸς τινῶν αἱ ρετικῶν ἀναπεπλάσθαι τινὰ τούτων (sc. ἀποκρύφων) ἱστορεῖ. Apud Euseb. Ηist. Eccl. 1. 4. c. 22. P Const. Apost. l. 6. §. 16. 4 Exercit. 1. cont. Baron. Annal. N. 10. p. 54. tiquity, entitled, The Preaching of Peter and Paul. I would only add, that Tertullian and Jerome have furnished us with an undoubted and remarkable instance of this, in the book called, The Acts of Paul and Thecla: "This spurious piece," say those authors, "was wrote by a certain presbyter in Asia, "under the name of Paul, who being convicted of the forgery, "confessed it, and said, he did it out of love to Paul," &c.s CHAP. V. A general proof, that the primitive Christians were well agreed about the books of the canon. PROP. II. The greatest part of Christians were very early agreed, what books were canonical, and to be looked upon as the rule of faith and practice. IT would certainly evidence a very great ignorance in ecclesiastical history in any person, to pretend to assign the particular time, when the present collection, or canon of the books of the New Testament, was made: for though we have all imaginable reason to conclude this certainly done long before the council of Laodicea, yet the histories of those times are so defective, that we have no positive account of that matter. The canon was indeed gradually enlarged, as the books were wrote at different times, and in places at a very great distance from each other; and so a considerable time was necessarily requisite, both for the spreading the books, and certifying their genuineness and authority. It is impossible in the nature of things, but some churches must receive the books long after others, as they lay at a greater distance from the places where they were written, or had less convenience of communication with them. Besides, Christianity for a long time laboured under the disadvantages of continual persecution; no general councils could be convened, and so no public notification of universal agreement in this matter. But notwithstanding all these things, it is yet discoverable, that, as soon as can be supposed after the writing of the books, the Christians in all coun Lib. de Baptism. c. 17. • Vid. Hieron. de Script. Eccl. in Luc. |