ledg'd, or as uncertain; but would it be lefs true, that the paffages extracted from the writings of the Fathers, which I have produc'd, are in their Books, tho' we fhould be wholly ignorant of what the Arians may have anfwer'd? I am not acquainted with Mr. Emlyn's Logick, but no man was ever lefs regular in fixing his principles, and drawing his confequences: I have made this remark in another place.

CHA P. VII.

Other quotations of the Italick Verfion in favour of the paffage in St. John's Epiftle, taken from two ancient Tracts, afcrib'd to St. Fulgentius.

T. Fulgentius, Bishop of Rufpe in Africk, liv'd in thofe forrowful times, when Arianifm was upon the throne, and true Chriftianity very much perfecuted. I have fet down in my Differtation two paffages where this holy Bifhop makes mention of the paffage of St. John, but as I have not given the exprefs words, I think it convenient to give 'em here.

The first of thefe paffages, which is in his Anfwers to ten Objections of the Arians, is exprefs'd in thefe terms: We acknowledge the unity of ef fence in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; get without confounding the perfons; for 'tis this which St. John teftifies, when he fays, There are three which bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghoft, and these three are one. The other paffage is in a Difcourfe, which he wrote con

Pag. 61,

Fulg. Rufp. ad 10. Objet.

1

cerning

e

cerning the Trinity at the requeft of one of his friends, nam'd Felix, to explain to him that great fubject, which was fo much difputed. I will fag then to you in few words, that the Father is one, the Son another, and the Holy Ghost another; difinit I fay, as to their perfons; but not diftinct as to their nature: and for this reafon 'tis faid, I and the Father are one: the word ONE refpects the nature, the term ARE denotes the perfons; in like manner, 'tis faid, There are three, which bear record in beaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.

After fuch exprefs quotations of St. John's paffage, let 'em come and boldly tell us it was not in the Italick Verfion, or that St. Fulgentius had not this Verfion, which was receiv'd in all the Churches, before his eyes, nor took thence the paffages he quoted in his Writings; this will be an unpardonable ignorance in those perfons who thro' prejudice deny a truth which is disagreeable to them; or a want of fincerity, yet worfe than that ignorance, fhameful in men who profefs themfelves Scholars.

In the last Editions of this holy Bishop's Works, and in the ninth Volume of the Bibliotheca Nova Patrum, we find two Tracts under the name of St. Fulgentius. The one is against an Arian Bifhop nam'd Pinta; and the other is a collection of divers Fragments against an Arian also, nam'd Fabian.

As to the former Mr. Du Pin; in the article of St. Fulgentius, proves that this Work does not belong to that famous Bishop, and he gives very good reafons, which if they please they may fee in the place I have mention'd. Dr. Cave in his history is of the fame opinion, and I know no per

e Fulg. de Trinit, ad Felicem Notarium, cap. iv,

fon

fon who has ftiffly maintain'd the contrary. 'Tis at least true, that this Tract is very ancient. The Author, who drew it up, quotes there several Texts of the facred Scripture in defence of the Trinity, after which he fets down this: In the Epiftle of St. John. There are three in heaven, which bear record, the Father, the Word, and the Spirit; and these three are one.

As to the collection of the Fragments of ten Books, which St. Fulgentius had written, as the Author of his Life fays, against the falfe accufations of Fabian, F. Chifflet, a Jefuit, who publish'd 'em upon the credit of fome MSS. does not doubt, but that they really are the Fragments, which fome one had collected from the Work of St. Fulgentius. I have no concern to engage my felf in this point of Criticism: but I will venture to fay, that I find in fome of these Fragments fuch things, as in my opinion, fuit not with the character and genius of this learned African. In the third fragment of the first Book we fee remarks upon the Greek, unworthy the great skill St. Fulgentius had in that language; and a diftinction betwixt the Latin words miniftrare and fubminiftrare, which does not agree with fuch a man, as he was. I leave the ftricter enquiry into these matters to those who are Criticks by profeffion; I fhall here infift no longer upon it. Yet if I have done right in not confounding the Author of thefe Fragments with St. Fulgentius, no more than with the Author of the Tract against Pinta, the quotation of St. John's paffage in thefe Fragments, wherein the Texts of Scripture are all taken from the Italick Verfion, will be a new proof that this Text was read in that Verfion.

The title of the 21ft Fragment of the fixth Book is, The Trinity in Perfons, and the Unity in Nature prov'd from holy Scripture; under this extraordinary

ter,

title are read these words at the clofe of the ChapThe Apostle St. John has evidently faid', and three are one, in fpeaking of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghoft: this is exprefs.

Upon occafion of the manner, after which this paffage is quoted, I return to the quotation St. Cyprian has made in his Treatife of the Unity of the Church; It is written, fays he, of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; and these three are one. 1 fee here no difference with the quotation of the Fragment; in the latter, 'tis indifputably the 7th y. fince it can only be faid of that verfe, St. John has evidently faid; the confequence tends directly to St. Cyprian, and confirms the reflexions I have made upon him.

If those, who venture to deny the paffage we are upon to have been in the Italick Verfion, have never read the Authors I have quoted, their ignorance in a matter, they ought to be acquainted with before they fo refolutely deny it as they do, is inexcufable in Men of learning; and if they have read 'em, and taken notice of the paffages in 'em I have quoted, their fincerity becomes very much fufpected: this is a grievous dilemma for 'em.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the judgment St. Jerom has made of this Text, in his Prologue to the feven Catholick Epiftles.

IS impoffible. but that St. Jerom must have feen in the Italick Verfion a Text which Tertullian and St. Cyprian had read there before him, and which all the world had feen there as well as they, and which the great numbers of Bishops who

liv'd

liv'd in the fame age with St. Jerom read there alfo. The toilfome and difficult pains he gave himfelf to purge that Verfion from the faults, which had crept into it, did not allow him to spare a Text, which would have been the greatest of all the faults he had to correct, if it did not really belong to St. John's Epiftle; but far from taking it away, he on the contrary has complain'd in very strong terms, in his Prologue to the feven Epistles, of the omiffion of this Text in fome private Verfion, which appear'd in his time; the Authors of which he treats as unfaithful Tranflators: a reproach unjust as well as rafh, if this paffage had not been in the Italick Verfion, which was used by the whole Church; and if withal it was not in the Greek of the New Teftament, fince it was from the Greek, as from the Original, that the Latin Verfions were made.

Thefe confequences are natural, and 'tis impoffible to overturn 'em, but by deftroying the principle from which they proceed, which is abfolutely to deny that this Prologue is St. Jerom's. And thus Mr. Simon has bent his whole force this way with a view to exclude the paffage it treats of, as a forg'd and fuppofititious Text: Dr. Mill and F. Martianay have gone into the fame opinion concerning the Prologue, but yet with different views, for they believ'd the paffage of St. John genuine; their prejudice reach'd no farther than the Prologue. I have collected from the Writings of each all the reafons they have urg'd to fhew that St. Jerom is not the Author: I have examin'd 'em ftep by step one after another, and have fhewn 'em to be fo weak, that Mr. Emlyn who has twice enter'd the lifts

* See the fifth Chapter of my Differtation upon the paffage of St. John, and the fourth Chapter of the Examin. of Mr. Emlyn's Anfwer.