7 Plures fuiffe, qui Evangelía The Evangelift Luke der fcripferunt, Lucas Evangelifta teftatur, dicens, quoniam quidem multi, &c. quæ a diverfis auctoribus edita, diverfarum hærefium fuere principia,ut eft illud juxta Ægyptios, & Thomam, & Matthiam, & Bartholomæum, duodecim quoque Apoftolorum, & Bafilidis atque Apellis, ac reliquorum, quæ enumerare longiffimum eft: cum hæc tantum impræfentiarum neceffe fit dicere, extitiffe quofdam, qui, fine fpiritu & gratia Dei, conati funt magis ordinare narrationem, quam hiftoriæ texere veritatem. clares, that there were many who wrote Gofpels, when he fays, forafmuch as many, &c. (c. i. ver. 1.) which being published by various authors, gave birth to several herefies; fuch as that according to the Egyptians, and Thomas, and Matthias, and Bartholomew, that of the Twelve Apostles, and Bafilides, and Apelles, and others, which it would be tedious to enumerate: in relation to thefe, it will be enough at prefent to say, that there have been certain men, who endeavoured, without the fpirit and grace of God, rather to fet forth fome fort of account, than to publish a true history. This Gofpel is confiderable, as it appears to have been received by fome Chriftians who were the difciples of its author in the latter end of the second century. Mr. Fabritius fuppofes, that Apelles did not write any new diftinct Gospel, but only formed one out of the true and genuine Gospels, that, as Marcion, he might be thought the author of a new Gofpel: but however true this fuppofition may be, it is not worthy of any great note, because it is most certain, that most of the Gospels which the Hereticks made ufe of were formed out of the true and genuine Gofpels, with the addition and omiffion of what they thought proper. However, it is evident, it was an Apocryphal piece, by Prop. IV, V, VI. and inafmuch as Jerome tells us, it was calculated to promote the herefy of its author, it must neceffarily be fupposed to have contained affertions contrary to thofe certainly known to be true, true, and therefore to be rejected by Prop. VIII. To confirm which observation, I fhall here give the reader some short account of Apelles and his doctrines. He was a disciple of the famous heretick Marcion, and became famous about the year of Chrift 180. He wrote many impious Tracts against the facred Scriptures, rejected both the law and the prophets, maintained there was one principle of all things, who was the good God, from whom proceeded the evil God, who made all things. He denied the refurrection of the dead, and published a collection of revelations, which he received from a noted ftrumpet, whose name was Philumene, of which both Tertullian and Eufebius give us an account, as do Origens, Epiphanius, and Auftin of the other particulars. Numb. V. The GOSPEL according to the TWELVE APOSTLES. CON ONCERNING this Apocryphal piece, unquestionably very antient, we have an account given us ; 2. By Ambrofe". Au Multi Evangelia fcribere conati, quæ boni Nummularii non probaverunt. Unum autem tantummodo in quatuor libros digeftum ex omnibus arbitrati funt eligendum; & aliud quidem fertur, quod duodecim fcripfiffe dicuntur. fus eft etiam Bafilides fcribere quod dicitur fecundum Bafilidem- -Legimus, ne legantur; legimus, ne ignoremus; legimus, non ut teneamus, fed repudiemus, & ut fciamus qualia fint in quibus Magnifici ifti cor exultent fu um. Many have endeavoured to write Gospels, which the Catholic Church hath not approved, but hath determined to make choice of four only. There is indeed a Gospel fpread up and down, faid to be written by the Twelve Apoftles. Bafilides wrote another called by his name. These we read, that they may not be read; we read them, that we may not seem ignorant; we read them, not that we receive, but reject them, and may know what those things are, of which the Hereticks make fuch boafting. 3. By Jerome, in the paffage juft now produced. He reckons the Gospel according to the Twelve Apoftles among thofe, which occafioned herefies in the Church, and which were wrote by men deftitute of the spirit and grace of God, without a due regard to truth. in 4. By the fame, in his Dialogues against the Pelagians 1, troducing Atticus difputing against the Opinion, That the baptifed could not fall into fin, and at length citing this Gospel to that purpose, in the following words: In Evangelio juxta Hebræos, quod Chaldaico Syroque fermone, fed Hebraicis literis fcriptum eft, quo utuntur uf Comment. in Luc. in init. In the Gofpel according to the Hebrews, which is writ¬ ten in the Chaldee and Syriack language, but in Hebrew Lib. 3. Epift. 17. in init. que que hodie Nazareni, fecun- letters, which the Nazarenes dum Apoftolos, five, ut plerique autumant, juxta Matthæum, quod in Cæfarienfi bibliotheca habetur; narrat hiftoria, &c. to this day ufe [and is called the Gospel] according to the [twelve] Apoftles, or, as most think, according to Matthew, and which is in the library of Cæfarea; there is the following hiftory, &c. I omit here producing the fragments of this Gofpel, and making any critical remarks upon it, because I fhall have a more convenient place of doing this, when I come to difcourse concerning the Gospel according to the Nazarenes, which appears very evidently, by this paffage of Jerome, to have been the very fame with this Gospel according to the Twelve Apostles. CHAP. VIII. An Account of the Gospel of Barnabas, mentioned by Pope Gelafius. Two fuppofed Fragments. Large Fragments of an Italian Gospel under the Name of Barnabas, now in the Poffeffion of Prince Eugene. It appears evidently a late Mahometan Imposture. B. Numb. VI. The GOSPEL of BARNABAS. THIS Book does not appear to have fallen within the cognizance of any of the Christian writers of the firft four centuries; only it is thus mentioned in the famous Decree of Pope Gelafius I. above produced, Numb. III. The Gospel under the name of Barnabas is Apocryphal. There are not, I believe, any fragments of it extant, at least not within my time, unless that be supposed to be one, which we find in Clemens Clemens Alexandrinus, who having cited these words of the Pfalmift (Pfal. cxviii. 19, 20.) Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous fhall enter: he adds, Barnabas expounding this saying of the Prophet, thus reasons : Πολλῶν πυλῶν ἀνεογνιῶν, ἡ δικαιοσύνη αυτή ἐσιν, ἡ ἐν Χρισῷ, ἐν ᾗ μακάριοι πάντες οἱ εἰσελθόντες. Although there are many gates opened, righteoufners is that gate, which is in Chrift, at which all they that enter shall be bleffed. b This paffage, attributed by Clemens Alexandrinus to Barnabas, is indeed in the first Epistle of Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians, §. 48. and therefore Dr. Grabe supposes, that Clemens Alexandrinus was miftaken in citing it out of Barnabas, because it is not in the Epiftle which goes under his name; which is indeed probable enough, not only because the paffage is exactly the fame in Clement's Epistle, but because it does not appear that any Gofpel under the name of Barnabas was known in the world, either in the time of Clemens Alexandrinus, or a long time afterwards. The learned Dr. Grabe, out of an antient manufcript, has indeed produced a faying attributed there to Barnabas, which he supposes to have been taken out of the Gospel of Barnabas, mentioned by Pope Gelafius. The fragment is this, as he has given it us out of the thirty-ninth Baroccian manuscript in the Bodleian: |