А

NEW AND FULL

Ꮇ Ꭼ Ꭲ Ꮋ 0 Ꭰ

OF SETTLING

THE CANONICAL AUTHORITY

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED

A VINDICATION OF THE FORMER PART

OF

ST. MATTHEW'S GOSPEL,

FROM MR. WHISTON'S CHARGE OF DISLOCATIONS.

IN THREE VOLUMES,

BY

THE REV. JEREMIAH JONES.

VOL. III.

OXFORD,
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

MDCCCXXVII.

A

METHOD

FOR

SETTLING THE CANON

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

PART IV.

A general dissertation, or proof, concerning the canonical au

thority of the four Gospels. BEFORE I enter upon the proof of the canonical authority of each of the Gospels in particular, it will be very serviceable to my design to observe and shew, that the primitive Christians have expressly acknowledged only four Gospels; and those four Gospels which we now receive under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to be genuine and canonical. I shall produce the several testimonies which I have observed, according to the order of time in which the writers lived; and among these it will not be amiss to place,

1. St. John. I. The testimony of St. John the apostle ; concerning whom we are told by Eusebius a, “ That when the three Gospels (of

, Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were published and known to

every body, St. John at length saw them, approved them, 6 and confirmed the truth of them; but [owned] that they

Των προαναγραφέντων τριών εις πάντας φησί τον απόστολος Ιωάννην, τον υπό των ήδη και εις αυτόν διαδεδομένων, αποδέξασθαι προτέρων ευαγγελιστών παρασιωπηθέντα μεν φασιν αλήθειαν αυτούς επιμαρτυρήσαν- χρόνον, και τα κατά τούτον πεπραγμένα τα μόνην δε άρα λείπεσθαι τη γραφή την το Σωτήρι (ταύτα δ' ήν τα προ της του περί των εν πρώτοις και κατ' αρχήν του κη- Βαπτιστού καθείρξεως) το κατ' αυτόν ευρύγματος υπό του Χριστού πεπραγμένων δι- ayyedén Fogadóūves. Hist. Eccl. I. 3. ήγησιν-Παρακληθέντα δή ούν τούτων ένεκα

a

C. 24