there is nothing in this story that will prove it a forgery of that time; for the book may be supposed extant long before, but by this artifice of the Monks imposed upon the world, as more valuable and extraordinary. The Anabàticon therefore, and the Revelation of Paul, being one and the fame book, it only remains now, that I endeavour to prove it Apocryphal : and that it is fo, is evident by Prop. IV, V, and VI. 'I add also, by Prop. VIII, as the whole design of it was contrary to a known and undoubted fact. 2 Cor. xii. 4, &c. St. Paul there says, he heard unutterable words (άρρητα ρήματα & εκ έξον ανθρώπω λαλήσαι) which it was not in the power of any man to declaré : which if it be true (as the book itself supposes), then they attempted in writing what was utterly impossible to be wrote, and so unhappily blundered, as that the whole design of their work was a mere contradiction to the title. (See Austin above.) Tertullian a has a passage in his Book against the Hereticks, which (if my judgment do not much fail me) may be very justly applied to this Revelation of Paul; and if it may, will afford a good argument to prove it Apocryphal. He is treating concerning the harmony of the Apostles' doctrines; and then adds Sed et fi in tertium usque Yea, and though Paul was cælum ereptus Paulus, et in taken up to the third heaParadisum delatus, audiit quæ- vens, and being brought into dam illic ; non poflunt videri Paradise, heard some certain ea fuisse, quæ illum in aliam things there, they cannot be doctrinam instructiorem præ- thought such, as would make ftarent ; cum ita fuerit con him capable of preaching any ditio eorum, ut nulli homi new doctrines; seeing they num proderentur. Quod fi ad were of that fort, that they alicujus conscientiam manavit could not be revealed or comnescio quid illud, et hoc se municated to any man. But if any one imagine he have the knowledge of these strange rea * De Præscript. adv. Hæret. c. b Loc, cit. 24. aliqua hæresis sequi affirmat, velations, and there be any aut Paulus secreti proditi reus fort of Hereticks, who declare eft, aut et alius poftea in Pa- they will be governed by them, radisum ereptus debet oftendi, (let them consider), that eicui permiffum fit eloqui quæ ther Paul must have been Paulo mutire non licuit. guilty of betraying the secret committed to him, or else they must produce some other person, who has since been taken up to Paradise, who had permission to speak those things freely, of which St. Paul durft not utter a word. , Nothing can be more probable, than that these words have a reference to the written Revelations we are treating of. It is certain by the passage, that there were some who pretended to know what St. Paul saw in the third heavens, and that there were a peculiar sort of Hereticks, who governed themselves according to them. How little different this is from what Epiphanius above fays of the Gnosticks and Caianites, every unprejudiced reader will acknowledge, who compares the places. In this interpretation I have the satisfaction to agree with Pamelius a, who remarks on these words of Tertullian thus: You see there have been some who affirmed they both knew and read in a writing of St. Paul's own, the secrets he heard in Heaven; afirming that he both preached them, and committed them to writing. This learned writer afterwards cites the place of Epiphanius concerning the Anabaticon, that of Austin and Gelafius concerning the Revelation, as all speaking of one and the same book. Upon the whole then, it is evident it was a spurious piece ; and that as neither Paul did nor could write it, so neither could any one else give any true account of what that book pretended to. I only add, that Dionysius Alexandrinus, a noted writer-early in the third century, assures us", Ilaine dia tão 2 Annot, in Loc. Tertull. Apud Euseb. Hift. Ecclef. lib. vii. c. 25. Y a επιςολών 1 επισολών υπoφήναντός τι και περί των αποκαλύψεων αυτώ, άς έκ ενέγραψε CHAP. XXXI. The Acts of Peter; 'or, The Travels of Peter, and the Recogni tions of Clemens, differing Titles of the fame Book now ex- Numb. XLVIJI. The ACTS of PETER. the antients of several spurious pieces; and particularly by several of certain Acts ; viz. Spicileg. Patr. t. 1. p. 85. of our I. By Eufebius 2. Τόγε μην των επικεκλημένων It is certain, that the book Πέτρα πράξεων---έθ' όλως intitled, The Ats of Peterεν τους καθολικούς εσμεν πα is not by any means to be ραδεδομένου ότι μήτε αρχαίων cal Books; inafmuch as none reckoned among the Canoniμήτε των καθ' ημάς τις εκ of the antients, nor any κλησιαστικός συγΓραφεύς ταϊς Εcclefialtical writers, have εξ αυτά συνεχρήσατο μαρτυ taken testimonies out of it. μίαις. 2. By Athanafius 6. Tα της νέας διαθήκης αν The Apocryphal books of the τιλεγόμενα ταύτα, περίοδοι New Teftament are there, The Acts (or Journeys) of Πέτρα-παραγεγραμμένα Peter, &c.--They are all εισί σάντως και νόθα και false, fpurious, and to be reαπόβλητα, και εδέν τέτων των jeated; none of thofe Apoαποκρύφων μάλιςα έγκριτον cryphal books of the New ή επωφελές, εξαιρέτως της νέας Teftament have been either διαθήκης" αλλά πάντα δί- approved, or are ufeful, but χα των ανωτέρω διαληφθέντων they have all been judged και έγκριθέντων παρα τοϊς Apocryphal, i. e. rather to be παλαιούς σοφούς, αποκρυφής Antient wife men and Fathers, concealed than read, by the μάλλον ή αναγνώσεως ως which contain any thing conαληθώς άξια, τά τε άλλα, trary to the books above reκαι αυτα τα καλέμενα εν αυ cited; as also all other Gofτοϊς Ευαγγέλια, εκτός των πα pels besides those four deliραδοθέντων ημίν τεσσάρων τό vered to us. των. 3. By Jeromed in the Life of Peter. Libri autem ejus, e quibus But e quibus But those (other) books unus Actorum ejus inscribi- (called) Peter's, among which tur, alius Evangelii, tertius one is His Acts, another his a Hift. Eccl. lib. 3. C. 3. the Canonical books, which he had re given. d Catal, vir. illustr. in Petro. Prædicationis, Y 3 Prædicationis, quartus Apo- Gospel, a third his Preaching, calypseos, quintus Judicii, in a fourth his Revelation, a ter Apocryphas Scripturas re fifth his Judgment, are reckputantur. oned among the Apocryphal Scriptures. 4. By Epiphanius a, concerning the Ebionites. Χρώνται δε και άλλαις τισι They make ufe of fome other βίβλοις, δήθεν ταϊς περιόδους books, fuch as thefe called καλεμέναις Πέτρα, ταϊς δια The Acts (or Journeys) of Pe ter, wrote by Clemens, in ΚλήμεντG- γραφείσαις, νοθεύσαντες μεν τα εν αυταίς, that is true, but inferted many which they have left very little ολίγα δε αληθινα είσαντες. . spurious accounts. 5. By Gelafius, in his Decree. Itinerarium nomine Petri A The Journeys under the name postoli, quod appellatur sancti of Peter the Apostle, which are Clementis libri octo (alii de- called The eight (other copies cem) Apocryphum. read ten) Books of Clemens, are Apocryphal. 6. By the same, a little after. Actus nomine Petri Apostoli The Acts under the name of Apocryphi. Peter the Apofle are Apo cryphal. Concerning these Asts of Péter it seems very hard to form any certain determination : I have here recited the teftimonics of the Acts and Periods, or Travels of Peter, together, as of one book. The latter title undoubtedly belongs to that book now extant, called, The Recognitions of Clement; and whether the former also did not, I confess I cannot tell. For though Gelasius does indeed mention them as distinct, yet it is observable, that in the first editions of that Pope's Decree there was no such distinction, nor any mention at all of the Aets of Peter. Dr. Grabe b supposes them to have been dif 2 Hæref. 30. s. 15. Spicileg. Patr. t. 1. p.78. ferent |