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A

NEW AND FULL

METHOD

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.

MDCCXCVIII.

Clav. Press

16.110.

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A

METHOD

FOR

SETTLING THE CANON

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

PART IV.

A general Differtation, or Proof, concerning the Canonical Authority of the Four Gofpels.

EFORE I enter upon the proof of the Canonical autho

BER

rity of each of the Gospels in particular, it will be very ferviceable to my design to obferve and fhew, that the primitive Chriftians have expressly acknowledged only four Gospels; and thofe four Gofpels which we now receive under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to be genuine and Canonical. I fhall produce the feveral teftimonies which I have observed, according to the order of time in which the writers lived; and among these it will not be amifs to place,

VOL. III.

B

1. St.

1. St. JOHN.

I. The teftimony of St. John the Apoftle; concerning whom we are told by Eufebius a, That when the three Gospels (of Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were published and known to every body, St. John at length faw them, approved them, and confirmed the truth of them; but (owned) that they were defective as to the account of those things which were done by our Saviour at the beginning of his ministry— For which reafon John, being defired by his friends, supplied the defects of the three others, and wrote his Gospel to inform us of that time, and the things which were done by our Saviour in it, viz. before the imprisonment of John the Baptift. Now hence it follows;

1. That before St. John wrote his Gofpel, the Chriftians of that first age owned and received no other than the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke; although it is certain there were many other falfe Gofpels extant at that time, as I have elsewhere proved.

2. That these three were univerfally received and approved. 3. That they were with just reason so approved, because St. John alfo did approve them.

Besides this teftimony of Eufebius, I find in a very old book, intitled, Μαρτύριον Τιμοθέω τοῦ ̓Αποςόλε, i. e. The Martyrdom of Timothy the Apostle, of which we have an extract in Photius (Cod. ccliv.); "That when, after the death of Domitian, "Nerva became Emperor, John returned to Ephesus, from "which place he had been banished by Domitian, he then "took the feveral books which contained the hiftory of our

Saviour's fufferings and miracles and doctrines, and were "now tranflated into feveral different languages, reviewed "them, rectified them, and joined himself to the former three Evangelifts (by writing his Gospel)." I confefs I cannot

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Τῶν προαναγραφέντων τριῶν εἰς παντας ἤδη καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν παδεύουν μένων, ἀποδέξασθαι μὲν φασὶν ἀλή θειαν αὐτοῖς ἐπιμαρτυρήσαντα μό

δὲ ἄρα λείπεθαι τῇ γραφῇ τὴν περὶ τῶν ἐν πρώτοις καὶ καὶ ἀρχὴν τῶ κηρύγματος ὑπὸ τοῦ Χρισῦ πεπραγμένων διήγησιν - Παρακληθέντα δὴ

ἦν τούτων ἕνεκα φησὶ τὸν ἀπόςολον Ἰωάννην, τὸν ὑπὸ τῶν προτέρων εὐας γελισῶν παρασιωπηθέντα χρόνον, καὶ τὰ κατὰ τέτον πεπραγμένα τῷ Σωτῆρι (ταῦτα δ ̓ ἦν τὰ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ Βαπτιςοῦ καθείρξεως) τῷ κατ ̓ αὐτὸν εὐαγγελίῳ παραδέναι. Hift. Eccl. 1. 3. c. 24.

certainly

certainly determine the age of this book. There is a book extant, intitled The Martyrdom of Timothy, which goes under the name of Polycrates, a Bishop of Ephefus, in the latter end of the fecond century, out of which Photius feems to have made this extract; and if this be true, it makes the history more valid: but it must be owned that feveral learned men are of opinion this book was not made by Polycrates, into which it is not my business here to enquire.

2. St. POLYCARP.

II. The testimony of Polycarp, who, according to Irenæus, was not only inftructed by the Apostles, and acquainted with many who had seen Chrift, but placed by the Apostles in Afia, as Bishop of Smyrna, whom, says he, I also faw when I was young. He (Polycarp) exprefsly mentions together our four Gofpels and their authors thus: "It was not without "reason that the Evangelifts began their Gospels different

ways; though the defign of each of them was the fame. " Matthew, because he wrote to the Hebrews, began with the "genealogy of Chrift, that he might evidence Chrift to be "defcended of that family, which all the Prophets had foretold "he fhould defcend from. John being fixed among the “Ephefians, who as Gentiles were ignorant of the law, began his Gospel with an account of the cause of our redemp❝tion, viz. that God would have his Son become incarnate

* Καὶ Πολύκαρπος δὲ οὐ μόνον ὑπὸ ἀποςόλων μαθητευθεὶς, καὶ συναναγραφείς πολλοῖς τοῖς τὸν Χρισὸν ἑωρακόσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑπὸ ἀποσόλων καταταθεὶς εἰς τὴν ̓Ασίαν ἐν τῇ ἐν Σμύρνη ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐπίσκοπος, ὃν καὶ ἡμεῖς ἑωράκαμεν ἐν τῇ πρώτῃ ἡμῶν zig. Adv. Hærei. 1. 3. c. 3. et apud Eufeb. 1. 4. c. 14.

Rationabiliter Evangelifta principiis diverfis utuntur, quamvis una eademque evangelizandi eorum probetur intentio. Matthæus, ut Hebræis fcribens, genealogiæ Chrifti ordinem texuit, ut oftenderet ab ea Chriftum descendiffe progenie, de

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qua eum nafciturum univerf Prophetæ cecinerant. Joannes autem ad Ephefum conftitutus, qui legem tanquam ex Gentibus ignorabant, a caufa noftræ redemptionis Evange lii fumpfit exordium; quæ caufa ex eo apparet, quod filium fuum Deus pro noftra falute voluit incarnari. Lucas vero a Zachariæ facerdotio incipit, ut ejus filii miraculo nativitatis, et tanti prædicatoris officio, Divinitatem Chrifti gentibus declararet. Unde et Marcus antiqua prophetici myfterii competentia adventui Chrifti declarat, ut non nova, fed antiquitus prolata ejus Prædicatio probaretur.

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