Paragraphs 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation: So that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any Man, that it should be believed as an Article of Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation. In the Name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church.

Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books,

Genesis	The First Book of Samuel	The Book of Hester
Exodus	The Second Book of Samuel	The Book of Job
Leviticus	The First Book of Kings	The Psalms
Numbers	The Second Book of Kings	The Proverbs
Deuteronomy	The First Book of Chronicles	Ecclesiastes or Preacher
Joshua	The Second Book of Chronicles	Cantica or Song of Solomon
Judges	The First Book of Esdras	Four Prophets the greater
Ruth	The Second Book of Esdras	Twelve Prophets the less.

And the other Books (as Hierom saith) the Church doth read for Example of Life, and Instruction of Manners, but yet it doth not apply them to Establish any Doctrine: Such are these following.
The Third Book of Esdras
The Fourth Book of Esdras
The Book of Tobias
The Book of Judith
The rest of the Book of Esther
The Book of Wisdom
Jesus the Son of Syrach
Baruch the Prophet
The Song of the Three Children
The History of Susanna
Of Bel and the Dragon
The Prayer of Manasses
The First Book of Maccabees
The Second Book of Maccabees.

All the Books of the New Testament as they are commonly received, we do receive, and account them Canonical.

In this Article are Two important Heads, and to each of them a proper consequence does belong. The First is, That the Holy Scriptures do contain all things necessary to Salvation; The Negative Consequence that ariseth out of that, is, That no Article that is not either Read in it, or that may not be proved by it, is to be required to be believed as an Article of Faith, or to be thought necessary to Salvation. The Second is, The settling the Canon of the Scripture both of Old and New Testament; and the consequence that arises out of that, is, The rejecting the Books commonly called Apocryphal, which though they may be Read by the Church, for Example of Life, and Instruction of Manners; yet are no part of the Canon, nor is any Doctrine to be Established by them.

After the main Foundations of Religion in General in the belief of a God, or more specially of the Christian Religion in the Doctrine of the Trinity, and of the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ, are laid down; The next Point to be settled, is, What is the Rule of this Faith, where is it to be found, and with whom is it lodged? The Church of Rome and We do both agree, that the Scriptures are of Divine Inspiration: Those of that Communion acknowledge, That every thing which is contained in Scripture, is true, and comes from God; but they add to this, That the Books of the New Testament were occasionally written, and not with the design of making them the full Rule of Faith, but that many things were delivered Orally by the Apostles; which if they are faithfully Transmitted to us, are to be received by us with the same Submission and Respect that we pay to their Writings: And they also believe, That these Traditions are conveyed down infallibly to us, and that to distinguish betwixt true and false Doctrines and Traditions, there must be an infallible Authority lodged by Christ with his Church. We on the contrary affirm, That the Scriptures are a compleat Rule of Faith, and that the whole Christian Religion is contained in them, and no where else; and although we make great use of Tradition, especially that which is most Ancient and nearest the Source, to help us to a clear understanding of the Scriptures; yet as to Matters of Faith we reject all Oral Tradition, as an incompetent mean of conveying down Doctrines to us, and we refuse to receive any Doctrine, that is not either expresly contained in Scripture, or clearly proved from it.

In order to the opening and proving of this, it is to be considered, what God’s design in first ordering Moses, and after him all Inspired Persons to put things in Writing, could be: it could be no other than to free the World from the Uncertainties and Impostures of Oral Tradition. All Mankind being derived from one common Source, it seems it was much easier in the first Ages of the World, to preserve the Tradition pure, than it could possibly be afterwards: There were only a few things then to be delivered concerning God; as, That he was one Spiritual Being, That he had Created all things, That he alone was to be Worshipped and Served; the rest relating to the History of the World, and chiefly of the first Man that was made in it. There were also great advantages on the side of Oral Tradition, the first men were very long-liv’d, and they saw their own Families spread extreamly, so that they had on their side both the Authority which long Life always has, particularly concerning Matters of Fact, and the credit that Parents have naturally with their own Children, to secure Tradition. Two Persons might have conveyed it down, from Adam so Abraham; Methuselah lived above Three hundred years while Adam was yet alive, and Sem was almost an hundred when he died, and he lived much above an hundred years in the same time with Abraham, according to the Hebrew. Here is a great period of Time filled up by Two or Three Persons: And yet in that Time the Tradition of those very few things in which Religion was then comprehended, was so Universally and Intirely corrupted, that it was necessary to correct it by immediate Revelation to Abraham: God intending to have a peculiar People to himself out of his Posterity, commanded him to forsake his Kindred and Country, that he might not be corrupted with an Idolatry, that we have reason to believe was then but beginning among them. We are sure his Nephew Laban was an Idolater: And the danger of mixing with the rest of Mankind was then so great, that God ordered a Mark to be made on the Bodies of all descended from him, to be the Seal of the Covenant, and the Badge and Cognisance of his Posterity: By that distinction, and by their living in a wandring and unfixed manner, they were preserved for some time from Idolatry: God intending afterwards to settle them in an Instituted Religion. But though the Beginnings of it, I mean the Promulgation of the Law on Mount Sinai, was one of the most amazing things that ever happened, and the fittest to be Orally conveyed down, the Law being very short, and the Circumstances in the delivery of it most astonishing; and though there were many Rites, and several Festivities appointed chiefly for the carrying down the Memory of it; though there was also in that dispensation, the greatest advantage imaginable for securing this Tradition, all the main Acts of their Religion being to be performed in one Place, and by men of one Tribe and Family; as they were also all the Inhabitants of a small Tract of Ground, of one Language, and by their Constitutions oblig’d to maintain a constant Commerce among themselves: They having further a continuance of Signal Characters of God’s Miraculous Presence among them, such as the Operation of the Water of Jealousy, the Plenty of the Sixth Year to supply them all the Sabbatical Year, and till the Harvest of the following Year: Together with a Succession of Prophets that followed one another, either in a constant course, or at least soon after one another; but above all, the Presence of God which appeared in the Cloud of Glory, and in those Answers that were given by the Urim and Thummim, all which must be confessed to be advantages on the side of Tradition, vastly beyond any that can be pretended to have been in the Christian Church. Yet notwithstanding all these, God commanded Moses to write all their Law, as the Ten Commandments were by the Immediate Power or Finger of God, writ on Tables of Stone. When all this is laid together and well considered, it will appear, That God by a particular Oeconomy intended then to secure Revealed Religion from the doubtfulness and uncertainties of Oral Tradition.

It is much more reasonable to believe, That the Christian Religion, which was to be spread to many remote Regions, among whom there could be little Communication, should have been fixed in its first beginnings by putting it in▪ Writing, and not left to the looseness of Reports and Stories. We do plainly see, That though the methods of knowing and communicating Truth, are now furer and better fixed, than they have been in most of the Ages which have passed since the beginnings of this Religion; yet in every Matter of Fact such additions are daily made, as it happens to be Reported, and every Point of Doctrine is so variously stated, that if Religion had not a more assured bottom than Tradition, it could not have that Credit paid to it that it ought to have; If we had no greater certainty for Religion, than Report, we could not believe it very firmly, nor venture upon it: So in order to the giving this Doctrine such Authority as is necessary for attaining the great ends proposed in it, the conveyance of it must be clear and unquestionable; otherwise as it would grow to be much mixed with Fable, so it would come to be looked on as all a Fable. Since then Oral Tradition, when it had the utmost Advantages possible of its side, failed so much in the conveyance both of Natural Religion, and of the Mosaical, we see that it cannot be relied on as a certain method of preserving the Truths of Revealed Religion.

In our Saviour’s Time, Tradition was set up on many occasions against him, but he never submitted to it: On the contrary he reproached the Jews with this, That they had made the Laws of God of no effect by their Traditions;¹ and he told them, That they worshipped God in vain, when they taught for Doctrines the Commandments of men. In all his Disputes with the Pharisees, he appealed to Moses and the Prophets, he bade them search the scriptures, for in them, said he, ye think ye have eternal life, and they testify of me. Ye think is by the Phraseology of that time, a word that does not refer to any particular Conceit of theirs; but imports, That as they thought, so in them they had Eternal Life. Our Saviour justifies himself and his Doctrine often by words of Scripture, but never once by Tradition. We see plainly, That in our Saviour’s Time, the Tradition of the Resurrection was so doubtful among the Jews, that the Sadducees, a formed Party among them, did openly deny it. The Authority of Tradition had likewise imposed two very mischievous Errors upon the strictest Sect of the Jews, that adhered the most firmly to it: The one was, That they understood the Prophecies concerning the Messias sitting on the Throne of David literally: They thought that in imitation of David, he was not only to free his own Country from a Foreign Yoke, but that he was to subdue, as David had done, all the Neighbouring Nations. This was to them a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence; so their adhering to their Traditions proved their ruin in all Respects. The other Error, to which the Authority of Tradition led them, was their preferring the Rituals of their Religion to the Moral Precepts that it contained: This not only corrupted their own Manners, while they thought that an Exactness of Performing, and a Zeal in Asserting, not only the Ritual Precepts that Moses gave their Fathers, but those Additions to them which they had from Tradition, that were accounted hedges about the Law: That this, I say, might well excuse or atone for the most heinous Violations of the Rules of Justice and Mercy: But this had yet another worse effect upon them, while it possessed them with such prejudices against our Saviour and his Apostles, when they came to see that they set no value on those practices that were recommended by Tradition, and that they preferred pure and sublime Morals, even to Mosaical Ceremonies themselves, and set the Gentiles at liberty from those observances. So that the ruin of the Jews, their rejecting the Messias, and their persecuting his followers, arose chiefly from this Principle that had got in among them of believing Tradition, and of being guided by it.

The Apostles in all their Disputes with the Jews, make their Appeals constantly to the Scriptures; they set a high Character on those of Berea for examining them, and comparing the Doctrine that they preached,² with them. In the Epistles to the Romans, Galatians and Hebrews, in which they pursue a thread of Argument, with relation to the Prejudices that the Jews had taken up against Christianity, they never once argue from Tradition, but always from the Scriptures; They do not pretend only to disparage Modern Tradition, and to set up that which was more Ancient: They make no such distinction, but hold close to the Scriptures. When St. Paul sets out the Advantages that Timothy had by a Religious Education, he mentions this, That of a Child he had known the holy Scriptures,³ which were able to make him wise unto Salvation, through Faith which was in Christ Jesus: That is, the Belief of the Christian Religion was a Key to give him a right understanding of the Old Testament; and upon this occasion St. Paul adds, All Scripture (that is, the whole Old Testament) is given by Divine Inspiration; (or as others render the words) All the divinely Inspired Scripture is profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in Righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. The New Testament was writ on the same design with the Old; that as St. Luke expresses it, We might know the certainty of those things wherein we have been instructed:⁴ These things were written, saith St. John, that ye might believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his Name. When St. Peter knew by a special Revelation that he was near his End, he writ his Second Epistle,⁵ that they might have that as a mean of keeping those things always in remembrance after his death, Nor do the Apostles give us any hints of their having left any thing with the Church to be conveyed down by an Oral Tradition, which they themselves had not put in writing: They do sometimes refer themselves to such things as they had delivered to particular Churches; but by Tradition in the Apostles days, and for some Ages after, it is very clear, that they meant only the conveyance of the Faith, and not any unwritten Doctrines: They reckoned the Faith was a sacred depositum which was committed to them; and that was to be preserved pure among them. But it were very easy to shew in the continued Succession of all the first Christian Writers, That they still Appealed to the Scriptures, That they Argued from them, That they Condemned all Doctrines that were not contained in them; and when at any time they brought human Authorities to justify their Opinions or Expressions, they contented themselves with a very few, and those very late Authorities: So that their design in vouching them seems to be rather to clear themselves from the Imputation of having innovated any thing in the Doctrine, or in the ways of expressing it, than that they thought those Authorities were necessary to prove them by. For in that case they must have taken a great deal more pains than they did, to have followed up, and proved the Tradition much higher than they went.

We do also plainly see that such Traditions as were not founded on Scripture, were easily corrupted, and on that account were laid aside by the succeeding Ages: Such were the Opinion of Christ’s Reign on Earth for a Thousand years; The Saints not seeing God till the Resurrection; The necessity of giving Infants the Eucharist; The Divine Inspiration of the 70 Interpreters; besides some more important Matters, which in respect to those Times are not to be too much descanted upon. It is also plain, That the Gnosticks, the Valentinians, and other Hereticks, began very early to set up a Pretension to a Tradition delivered by the Apostles to some particular persons, as a Key for understanding the secret meanings that might be in Scripture; in opposition to which, both Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others,⁶ make use of Two sorts of Arguments: The one is the Authority of the Scripture it self, by which they confuted their Errors. The other is a Point of Fact, That there was no such Tradition. In asserting this, they appeal to those Churches which had been founded by the Apostles, and in which a Succession of Bishops had been continued down. They say, in these we must search for Apostolical Tradition. This was not said by them as if they had designed to establish Tradition, as an Authority distinct from, or equal to the Scriptures: But only to shew the falshood of that pretence of the Hereticks, and that there was no such Tradition for their Heresies as they gave out.

When this whole Matter is considered in all its parts, such as, 1st, That nothing is to be believed as an Article of Faith, unless it appears to have been Revealed by God. 2dly, That Oral Tradition appears both from the Nature of Man, and the Experience of former Times, to be an incompetent conveyer of Truth. 3dly, That some Books were written for the conveyance of those Matters, which have been in all Ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred. 4thly, That the Writers of the First Ages do always Argue from, and Appeal to these Books: And 5thly, That what they have said without Authority from them, has been rejected in succeeding Ages; the Truth of this Branch of our Article is fully made out.

If what is contain’d in theScripture in express words, is theObject of our Faith; then it will follow, That whatsoever may be proved from thence, by a just and lawful consequence, is also to be believed. Men may indeed Err in framing these Consequences and Deductions, they may mistake or stretch them too far; but though there is much Sophistry in the World, yet there is also true Logick, and a certain Thread of Reasoning. And the sense of every Proposition being the same, whether expressed always in the same or in different words; then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture, is an Object of Faith, tho it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture, and every just Inference from it must be as true as the Proposition it self is: Therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article. That was the Method of all the Ancient Hereticks: Christ and his Apostles Argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament, to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them, and so did all the Fathers; and therefore so may we do.

The great Objection to this, is, That the Scriptures are dark, That the same place is capable of different Senses, the Literal and the Mystical: And therefore since we cannot understand the true Sense of the Scripture, we must not Arguefrom it, but seek for an Interpreterofit, on whom we may depend. All Sects Argue from thence, and fancy that they find their Tenets in it: And therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred Truth, since so many do err that follow it. In Answer to this, it is to be considered, That the Old Testament was delivered to the whole Nation of the Jews; that Moses was read in the Synagogue, in the hearing of the Women and Children; that whole Nation was to take their Doctrine and Rules from it: All Appeals were made to the Law and to the Prophets among them: And though the Prophecies of the Old Testament were in their Stile and whole Contexture dark, and hard to be understood; yet when so great a Question as this, Who was the true Messias? came to be examined, the proofs urged for it, were Passages in the Old Testament. Now the Question was, How these were to be understood? No Appeal was here made to Tradition, or to Church-Authority, but only by the Enemies of our Saviour. Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense, and in the consequences that arose out of them. They did in that, Appeal to the rational Faculties of those to whom they spoke. The Christian Religion was at first delivered to poor and simple Multitudes, who were both illiterate and weak; the Epistles, which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament, were Addressed to the whole Churches to all the Faithful or Saints; that is, to all the Christians in those Churches. These were afterwards read in all their Assemblies. Upon this it may reasonably be asked, Were these Writings clear in that Age, or were they not? If they were not, it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole Body, and how they came to be received and entertained as they were. It is the End of Speech and Writing, to make things to be understood, and it is not supposable, That Men Inspired by the Holy Ghost, either could not or would not express themselves so as that they should be clearly understood. It is also to be observed, That the New Dispensation is opposed to the Old, as Light is to Darkness, an Open Face to a Veiled, and Substance to Shadows. Since then the Old Testament was so clear, that David both in the 19th, and most copiously in the 119th Psalm, sets out very fully, the Light which the Laws of God gave them in that darker State, we have much more reason to conclude, That the New Dispensation should be much brighter: If there was no need of a certain Expounder of Scripture then, there is much less now. Nor is there any Provision made in the New for a sure Guide: No Intimations are given where to find one: From all which we may conclude, That the Books of the New Testament were clear in those days, and might well be understood by those to whom they were at first addressed. If they were clear to them, they may be likewise clear to us: For though we have not a full History of that Time, or of the Phrases and Customs, and particular Opinions of that Age; yet the vast Industry of the succeeding Ages, of these two last in particular, has made such discoveries, besides the other collateral advantages which Learning and a Niceness in Reasoning has given us, that we may justly reckon, that though some Hints in the Epistles, which relate to the particulars of that Time, may be so lost, that we can at best but make conjectures about them; yet upon the whole matter, we may well understand all that is necessary to Salvation, in the Scripture.

We may indeed fall into Mistakes as well as into Sins; And into Errors of Ignorance, as well as into Sins of Ignorance. God has dealt with our Understandings as he has dealt with our Wiils: He proposes our Duty to us, with strong Motives to Obedience; he promises us inward Assistances, and accepts of our sincere Endeavours: And yet this does not hinder many from perishng Eternally, and others from falling into great Sins, and so running great danger of Eternal Damnation; and all this is because God has left our Wills free, and does not constrain us to be good: He deals with our Understandings in the same manner; he has set his Will, and the knowledge of Salvation before us, in Writings that are framed in a simple and plain Stile, in a Language that was then common, and is still well understood, that were at first designed for common Use: They are soon read, and it must be confessed that a great part of them is very clear: So we have reason to conclude, that if a man reads these carefully and with an honest Mind; if he prays to God to direct him, and follows sincerely what he apprehends to be true, and practises diligently those Duties that do unquestionably appear to be bound upon him by them, that then he shall find out enough to save his Soul; and that such Mistakes as lye still upon him, shall either be cleared up to him by some happy Providence, or shall be forgiven him by that Infinite Mercy, to which his Sincerity and Diligence is well known. That bad men should fall into grievous Errors, is no more strange, than that they should commit heinous Sins: And the Errors of good men, in which they are neither wilful nor insolent, will certainly be forgiven, as well as their Sins of Infirmity. Therefore all the ill use that is made of the Scripture, and all the Errors that are pretended to be proved by it, do not weaken its Authority or Clearness. This does only shew us the danger of Studying them with a biassed or corrupted mind, of reading them too carelesly, of being too curious in going farther than as they open matters to us; and in being too implicite in adhering to our Education, or in Submitting to the Dictates of others.

So far I have explained the First Branch of this Article. The Consequence that arises out of it is so clear, that it needs not be proved: That therefore nothing ought to be esteemed an Article of Faith, but what may be found in it, or proved from it. If this is our Rule, our entire and only Rule, then such Doctrines as are not in it, ought to be rejected; and any Church that adds to the Christian Religion, is erroneous for making such Additions, and becomes Tyrannical if she imposes them upon all her Members, and requires positive Declarations, Subscriptions, and Oaths concerning them. In so doing she forces such as cannot have Communion with her, but by affirming what they believe to be false, to withdraw from that which cannot be had without departing from the Truth. So all the Additions of the Five Sacraments, of the Invocation of Angels and Saints, of the worshipping of Images, Crosses and Relicks; of the Corporal Presence in the Eucharist; of the Sacrifice offered in it, for the dead as well as for the living, together with the Adoration offered to it, with a great many more, are certainly Errors, unless they can be proved from Scripture; and they are intolerable Errors, if as the Scripture is express in opposition to them, so they defile the Worship of Christians with Idolatry: But they become yet most intolerable, if they are imposed upon all that are in that Communion, and if Creeds or Oaths in which they are affirmed, are required of all in their Communion. Here is the main ground of justifying our forming our selves into a distinct Body from the Roman Church, and therefore it is well to be considered. The further discussing of this will come properly in, when other Particulars come to be examined.

From hence I go to the Second Branch of this Article, which gives us the Canon of the Scripture. Here I shall begin with the New Testament; for though in order the Old Testament is before the New, yet the Proof of the one being more distinctly made out by the concurring Testimonies of other Writers, than can possibly be pretended for the other, and the New giving an Authority to the Old, by asserting it so expresly, I shall therefore prove first the Canon of the New Testament. I will not urge that of the Testimony of the Spirit, which many have had recourse to: This is only an Argument to him that feels it, if it is one at all; and therefore it proves nothing to another person; besides, the utmost that with reason can be made of this, is that a good man feeling the very powerful Effects of the Christian Religion on his own Heart, in the reforming his Nature, and the calming his Conscience, together with those Comforts that arise out of it, is convinced in general of the Whole of Christianity, by the happy Effects that it has upon his own Mind: But it does not from this appear how he should know that such Books and such Passages in them should come from a Divine Original, or that he should be able to distinguish what is Genuine in them from what is Spurious. To come therefore to such Arguments as may be well insisted upon and maintained.

The Canon of the New Testament as we now have it, is fully proved from the Quotations out of the Books of the New Testament, by the Writers of the First and Second Centuries; such as Clemens, Ignatius, Justin, Irenaeus, and several others. Papias, who conversed with the Disciples of the Apostles, is cited by Eusebius in confirmation of St. Matthew’s Gospel, which he says was writ by him in Hebrew:⁷ He is also cited to prove that St. Mark writ his Gospel from St. Peter’s Preaching; which is also confirmed by Clemens of Alexandria; not to mention later Writers. Irenaeus says St. Luke writ his Gospel according to St. Paul’s Preaching,⁸ which is supported by some Words in St. Paul’s Epistles that relate to Passages in that Gospel; yet certainly he had likewise other Vouchers; those who from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word; though the whole might receive its full Authority from St. Paul’s Approbation. St. John writ later than the other Three; so the Testimonies concerning his Gospel are the fullest and the most particular.⁹ Irenaeus has laboured the Proof of this matter with much Care and Attention: He lived within an Hundred years to St. John, and knew Policarp that was one of his Disciples: After him come Tertullian and Origen, who speak very copiously of the Four Gospels;¹⁰ and from them all the Ecclesiastical Writers have without any doubting or Controversy acknowledged and cited them, without the least shadow of any Opposition, except what was made by Marcion and the Manichees.

Next to these Authorities we appeal to the Catalogues of the Books of the New Testament, that are given us in the Third and Fourth Centuries, by Origen a Man of great Industry, and that had examined the State of many Churches; by St. Athanasius, by the Council of Laodicea and Carthage;¹¹ and after these we have a constant Succession of Testimonies, that do deliver these as the Canon universally received. All this laid together, does fully prove this Point; and that the more clearly when these Particulars are considered. 1. That the Books of the New Testament were read in all their Churches, and at all their Assemblies, so that this was a Point in which it was not easy for men to mistake. 2dly, That this was so near the Fountain, that the Originals themselves of the Apostles were no doubt so long preserved. 3dly, That both the Jews, as appears from Justin Martyr, and the Gentiles,¹² as appears by Celsus, knew that these were the Books in which the Faith of the Christians was contained. 4thly, That some question was made touching some of them, because there was not that clear or general knowledge concerning them, that there was concerning the others; yet upon fuller enquiry all acquiesced in them. No doubt was ever made about Thirteen of St. Pauls Epistles; because there were particular Churches or Persons to whom the Originals of them were directed:¹³ But the Strain and Design of that to the Hebrews being to remove their Prejudices, that high one which they had taken up against St. Paul as an Enemy to their Nation, was to be kept out of view, that it might not blast the good Effects which were intended by it; yet it is cited oftner than once by Clemens of Rome: And though the Ignorance of many of the Roman Church, who thought that some Passages in it favoured the Severity of the Novatians,¹⁴ that cut off Apostates from the hopes of Repentance, made them question it, of which mention is made both by Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, who frequently affirm, that the Latin Church, or the Roman, did not receive it; yet Athanasius reckons both this and the Seven General Epistles among the Canonical Writings. Cyril of Jerusalem, who had occasion to be well informed about it, says, that he delivers his Catalogue from the Church, as she had received it from the Apostles, the Ancient Bishops, and the Governors of the Church; and reckons up in it both the Seven General Epistles, and the Fourteen of St. Paul. So does Ruffin, and so do the Councils of Laodicea and Carthage;¹⁵ the Canons of the former being received into the Body of the Canons of the Universal Church.¹⁶ Irenaeus, Origen, and Clemens of Alexandria, cite the Epistle to the Hebrews frequently. Some question was made of the Epistle of St. James,¹⁷ the Second of St. Peter, the Second and Third of St. John, and St. Jude’s Epistle. But both Clemens of Rome, Ignatius, and Origen, cite St. Jame’s Epistle: Eusebius says it was known to most, and read in most Christian Churches: The like is testified by St. Jerom. St. Peter’s Second Epistle is cited by Origen and Firmilian; and Eusebius says it was held very useful even by those who held it not Canonical; But since the First Epistle was never questioned by any, the Second that carries so many Characters of its Genuineness, such as St. Peter’s Name at the Head of it, the mention of the Transfiguration, and of his being an Eye-witness of it,¹⁸ are evident Proofs of its being writ by him. The Second and Third Epistles of St. John are cited by Irenaeus, Clemens, and Dennis of Alexandria, and by Tertullian. The Epistle of St. Jude is also cited by Tertullian. Some of those General Epistles were not addressed to any particular Body or Church, that might have preserved the Originals of them, but were sent about in the nature of Circular Letters; so that it is no wonder if they were not received so early, and with such an Unanimity, as we find concerning the Four Gospel’s, the Acts of the Apostles, and Thirteen of St. Paul’s Epistles. These being first fixed upon by an unquestioned and undisputed Tradition, made that here was a Standard once ascertained to judge the better of the rest: So when the matter was strictly examined, so near the Fountain that it was very possible and easy to find out the Certainty of it, then in the beginning of the Fourth Century the Canon was settled, and universally agreed to. The Stile and Matter of the Revelation, as well as the designation of Divine given to the Author of it, gave occasion to many Questions about it: Clemens of Rome cites it as a Prophetical Book:¹⁹ Justin Martyr says it was writ by John, one of Christ’s Twelve Apostles: Irenaeus calls it the Revelation of St. John the Disciple of our Lord, writ almost in our own Age, in the End of Domitian’s Reign. Melito writ upon it; Theophilus of Antioch, Hyppolitus, Clemens, and Dennis of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen do cite it: And thus the Canon of the New Testamentseems to be fullymade outbythe concurrent Testimony of the several Churches immediately after the Apostolicaltime.

Here it is to be observed, that a great difference is to be made between all this and the Oral Tradition of a Doctrine, in which there is nothing fixed or permanent, so that the whole is only Report carried about and handed down. Whereas here is a Book, that was only to be copied out and read publickly, and by all Persons, between which the difference is so vast, that it is as little possible to imagine how the one should continue pure, as how the other should come to be corrupted. There was never a Book of which we have that reason to be assured that it is genuine, that we have here. There hapned to be constant Disputes among Christians from the Second Century downward, concerning some of the most important Parts of this Doctrine; and by both sides these Books were appealed to: And though there might be some Variations in Readings and Translations, yet no question was made concerning the Canon, or the Authenticalness of the Books themselves; unless it were by the Manichees, who came indeed to be called Christians, by a very enlarged way of speaking; since it is justly strange how men who said that the Author of the Universe, and of the Mosaical Dispensation, was an Evil God; and who held that there were Two Supreme Gods, a Good and an Evil one; how such men, I say, could be called Christians.

The Authority of those Books is not derived from any Judgment that the Church made concerning them; but from this, That it was known that they were writ, either by men who were themselves the Apostles of Christ, or by those who were their Assistants and Companions, at whose Order, or under whose Direction and Approbation it was known that they were written and published. These Books were received and known for such, in the very Apostolical Age it self; so that many of the Apostolical men, such as Ignatius and Polycarp, lived long enough to see the Canon generally received and settled. The suffering and depressed state of the First Christians was also such, that as there is no reason to suspect them of Imposture, so it is not at all credible that an Imposture of this kind could have passed upon all the Christian Churches. A man in a Corner might have forged the Sibylline Oracles, or some other Pieces which were not to be generally used; and they might have appeared soon after, and Credit might have been given too easily to a Book or Writing of that kind: But it cannot be imagined, that in an Age in which the belief of this Doctrine brought men under great Troubles, and in which Miracles and other extraordinary Gifts were long continued in the Church, that, I say, either False Books could have been so early obtruded on the Church as True, or that True Books could have been so vitiated as to lose their Original Purity, while they were so universally read and used; and that so soon; or that the Writers of that very Age and of the next, should have been so generally and so grosly imposed upon, as to have cited Spurious Writings for True. These are things that could not be believed in the Histories or Records of any Nation: Though the Value that the Christians set upon these Books, and the constant use they made of them, reading a parcel of them every Lord’s Day, make this much less supposable in the Christian Religion, than it could be in any other sort of History or Record whatsoever. The early spreading of the Christian Religion to so many remote Countries and Provinces, the many Copies of these Books that lay in Countries so remote, the many Translations of them that were quickly made, do all concur to make the Impossibility of any such Imposture the more sensible. Thus the Canon of the New Testament is fixed upon clear and sure Grounds.

From thence without any further Proof, we may be convinced of the Canon of the Old Testament. Christ does frequently cite Moses and the Prophets; he appeals to them; and though he charged the Jews of that time, chiefly their Teachers and Rulers, with many Disorders and Faults, yet he never once so much as insinuated that they had corrupted their Law, or other Sacred Books; which if true, had been the greatest of all those Abuses that they had put upon the People. Our Saviour cited their Books according to the Translation that was then in Credit and common Use amongst them. When one asked him which was the great Commandment, he answered, How readest thou? And he proved the chief things relating to himself, his Death and Resurrection, from the Prophecies that had gone before; which ought to have been fulfilled in him: He also cites the Old Testament,²⁰ by a Threefold Division of the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms; according to the Three Orders of Books into which the Jews had divided it. The Psalms, which was the first among the Holy Writings, being set for that whole Volume. St. Paul says, That to the Jews were committed the Oracles of God:²¹ He reckons that among the chief of their Privileges, but he never blames them for being unfaithful in this Trust; and it is certain that the Jews have not corrupted the chief of those Passages that are urged against them to prove Jesus to have been the Christ. So that the Old Testament, at least the Translation of the LXX Interpreters, which was in common use and in high esteem among the Jews in our Saviour’s time, was as to the main, faithful and uncorrupted. This might be further urged from what St. Paul says concerning those Scriptures which Timothy had learned of a Child; these could be no other than the Books of the Old Testament. Thus if the Writings of the New Testament are acknowledged to be of Divine Authority, the full Testimony that they give to the Books of the Old Testament, does sufficiently prove their Authority and Genuineness likewise. But to carry this matter yet further:

Moses wrought such Miracles both in Egypt, in passing through the Red-Sea, and in the Wilderness, that if these are acknowledg’d to be true, there can be no question made of his being sent of God, and authorized by him to deliver his Will to the Jewish Nation. The Relation given of those Miracles represents them to be such in themselves, and to have been acted so publickly, that it cannot be pretended they were Tricks, or that some bold Asserters gained a Credit to them by affirming them. They were so publickly transacted, that the Relations given of them are either downright Fables, or they were clear and uncontested Characters of a Prophet authorized of God. Nor is the Relation of them made with any of those Arts that are almost necessary to Impostors. The Jewish Nation is all along represented as froward and disobedient, apt to murmur and rebel. The Laws it contains, as to the Political part, are calculated to advance both Justice and Compassion, to awaken Industry, and yet to repress Avarice. Liberty and Authority are duly tempered; the moral part is pure, and suitable to Human Nature, though with some Imperfections and Tolerances which were connived at, but yet regulated: And for the Religious part, Idolatry, Magick, and all Human Sacrifices were put away by it: When we consider what remains are left us of the Idolatry of the Egyptians, and what was afterward among the Greeks and Romans, who were Polite and well constituted as to their Civil Laws and Rules, and may be esteem’d the most refin’d Pieces of Heathenism, we do find a Simplicity and Purity, a Majesty and Gravity, a Modesty with a Decencyin the Jewish Rituals, to which the others can in no sort be compar’d.

In the Books of Moses, no design for himself appears; his Posterity were but in the Crowd, Levites, without any Character of Distinction; and he spares neither himself nor his Brother, when there was occasion to mention their Faults, no more than he does the rest of his Countrymen. It is to be further considered, that the Laws and Policy appointed by Moses, settled many Rules and Rites that must have perpetuated the Remembrance of them. The Land was to be divided by Lot, and every Share was to descend in an Inheritance: The frequent Assemblies at Jerusalem on the Three great Festivals, the Sabbaths, the New Moons, the Sabbatical Year, and the great Jubilee, the Law of the double Tythe, the Sacrifices of so many different kinds, the distinctions of Meats, the Prohibition of eating Blood, together with many other Particulars, were all founded upon it. Now let it be a little considered, whether the Foundation of all this, I mean the Five Books of Moses could be a Forgery or not. If the Pentateuch was delivered by Moses himself to the Jews, and received by them as the Rule both of their Religion and Policy, then it is not possible to conceive, but that the Recital of all that is contained from the Book of Exodus to the End of Deuteronomy, was known by them to be true; and this establishes the Credit of the whole. But if this is not admitted, then let it be considered in what time it can possibly be supposed that this Imposture could have appeared. There is a continued Series of Books of their History, that goes down to the Babylonish Captivity; so if there was an Imposture of this sort set on foot in that time, all that History must have been made upon it, and an account must have been given of the discovery of those Books; otherwise the Imposture must have been too weak to have gain’dCredit. Whereas on the contrary, thewholeThread of their History represents these Books to have been always amongst them.

The discovery made in the Reign of Josias, cannot be supposed to be of this sort; since how much disorder soever the long and wicked Reign of Manasses might have brought them under, and what havock soever might have been made of the Writings that were held Sacred among them, yet it was impossible that a Series of Forged Laws and Histories could have been put upon them; of which there was still a continued Memory preserved among them, and that they could be brought to believe that a Book and a Law full of so much History, and of so many various and unusual Rites founded upon it, had been held Sacred among them for many Ages; if it was but a new Invention. Therefore this is an extravagant Conceit: So that the Book that was then found in the Temple, was either the Original of the Law written by Moses’s own hand;²² for so the Words may be rendred; or it may be understood of some of the last Chapters of Deuteronomy,²³ which seem by the Tenor of them to have been at first a Book by themselves, tho afterwards joined to the rest of Deuteronomy; and in the Collection that Josias was making, these might be wanting at first; and in these there are such severe Threatnings, that it was no wonder if aHeart so tender as Josias’s,²⁴ was verymuch affected at the readingthem.

Upon the whole matter there is no Period in the whole History of the Jews, to which any suspicion of such an Imposture can be fasten’d before the Babylonish Captivity: So it must be laid either upon the times of Captivity, or soon after their Return out of it. Now, not to observe that men in such Circumstances, are seldom capable of things of that nature, Can it be imagined that a Series of Books that run through many Ages, could have been framed so particularly, and yet so exactly, that nothing in any concurrent History could ever be brought to disprove any part of it? That such a thing could pass in so short a time upon a whole Nation, while so many men remembred or might well remember what they had been before the Captivity, if they had not all known that it was true, is a most inconceivable thing. These Books were so far from being disputed, though we see their Neighbours the Samaritans were inclined enough to contest every thing with them, that all acquiesced in them, and in that second beginning of their being a State, as it is opened in the Books of Esdras and Nehemiah, and in Daniel, and theThree Prophets of the second Temple, all the other Books were received among them without dispute: And their Law was in such high esteem, that about Two hundredYears after that, theKing of Egypt did with much Entreaty. and at a vast Charge, procure a Translation of it to be made in Greek.

The Jewish Nation, as they live much within themselves, where it is safe for them to profess their Religion, so they have had the Divine Authority of their Books so deeply infused into them from Age to Age, that now above Sixteen hundred Years, though it is not possible for them to practise the main parts of their Religion, and though they suffer much for professing it, yet they do still adhere to it, and practise as much of it as they can by the Law it self, which ties the chief Performances of that Religion to one determinate Place. This is a Firmness which has never yet appeared in any other Religion besides the Jewish and the Christian: For all the several Shapes of Heathenism have often changed, and they all went off as soon as the Government that supported them fell, and that another came in its place. Whereas these have subsisted long, not only without the support of Civil Power, but under many severe Persecutions: which is at least a good Moral Argument to prove, that these Religions had another Foundation, and a deeper Root than any other Religion could ever pretend to. Yet after all, it is not to be denied, but that in the Collection that was made of the Books of the Old Testament after the Captivity, by Ezra and others, or after that burning of many of the Books of their Law under Antiochus Epiphanes mentioned in the Book of Maccabees, that some disorder might happen;²⁵ that there might be such regard had to some Copies, as not to alter some manifest faults that were in them, but that instead of that, they might have marked on the Margent that which was the true Reading: And a Superstitious conceit might have afterwards crept in, and continued in After-Ages of a mysteryin that matter, upon their first letting theseFaults continue in the Text with the Marginal Annotation of the Correction of them. There might be also other Marginal Annotations of the Modern Names of Places set against the Ancient ones, to guide the Reader’s judgment; and afterwards the Modern Name might haue been writ instead of the Ancient one. These are things that might naturally enough happen: And will serve to resolve many Objections against the Text of the Old Testament. All the Numbers of Persons as well as of Years might also have been writ in Numerical Letters, though afterwards they came all to be set down in words at large: And while they were in Letters, as some might have been worn out, and lost in Ancienter Copies, so others were by the resemblance of some Letters, very like to be mistaken: Nor could Mens Memories serve them so well to correct mistakes in Numbers as in other Matters. This may shew a way to reconcile many seeming differences between the Accounts that are variously stated in some of the Books of the Bible, and between the Hebrew and the Septuagint. In these Matters our Church has made no Decision; and so Divines are left to a just freedom in them.

In general we may safely rely upon the Care and Providence of God, and the Industry of Men, who are naturally apt to preserve things of that kind entire, which are highly valued among them. And therefore we conclude, That the Books of the Old Testament are preserved pure down to us, as to all those things for which they were written; that is, in every thing that is either an Object of Faith, or a Rule of Life: And as to lesser Matters which visibly have no Relation to either of these, there is no reason to think that every Copier was so divinely guided, that no small Error might surprize him. In Fact, we know that there are many various Readings, which might have arisen from the haste and carelesness of Copiers, from their guessing wrong that which appeared doubtful or imperfect in the Copy, and from a superstitious adhering to some apparent Faults, when they found them in Copies of a Venerable Antiquity. But when all those variousReadings are compar’d together, it appears that as theyare inconsiderable, so they do not concern ourFaith, nor ourMorals; the setting which right was the main end of Revelation. The most important diversity relates to Chronology; But the account of time, especially in the first Ages, is of no Consequence to our believing right, or to our living well: And therefore if some Errors or Mistakes should appear to be among those different Readings, these give no just cause to doubt of the whole: And indeed, considering the many Ages through which those Books have past, we have much more reason to wonder, that they are brought down to us so entire, and so manifestly genuine in all their main and important parts, than that we should see some prints of the frailty of those who copied and preserved them.

It remains only upon this Head to consider what Inspiration and an Inspired Book is, and how far that Matter is to be carried. When we talk with one another, a Noise is made in the Air that strikes with such Vibrations on the Ears of others, that by the motion thereby made on the Brain of another, we do convey our Thoughts to another person: So that the Impression made on the Brain is that which communicates our Thoughts to another. By this we can easily apprehend how God may make such Impressions on mens Brains, as may convey to them such things as he intends to make known to them.

This is the General Notion of Inspiration; in which the manner and degree of the Impression, may make it at the least as certain that the Motion comes from God, as a Man may be certain that such a thing was told him by such a person, and not by any other. Now there may be different degrees both of the Objects that are revealed, and of the manner of the Revelation. To some it may be given in charge to deliver Rules and Laws to men: And because that ought to be expressed in plain words without Pomp or Ornament, therefore upon such occasions the Imagination is not to be much agitated; but the impression must be made so naked, that the Understanding may clearly apprehend it; and by consequence that it may be plainly expressed. In others, the design may be only to employ them in order to the awakening men to observe a Law already received and owned: That must be done with such pompous Visions of Judgments coming upon the Violation of those Laws, as may very much alarm those to whom they are sent: Both the Representations and the Expressions must be fitted to excite men, to terrify, and so to reform them. Now because the Imagination, whether when we are Transported in our Thoughts being awake, or in Dreams, is capable of having those Scenes acted upon it, and of being so excited by them, as to utter them with pompous Figures, and in a due Rapidity; This is another way of Inspiration that is strictly called Prophecy in the Old Testament. A great deal of the Stile used in this must relate to the particulars of the time to which it belongs: Many Allusions, Hints, and Forms of Speech must be used, that are Lively and Proverbial; which cannot be understood, unless we had all those concurrent helps which are lost even in the next Age, if not preserved in Books, and so they must be quite lost after many Ages are past, when no other Memorials are left of the time in which they were transacted. This must needs make the far greater part of all the Prophetick Writings to be very dark to us: Not to insist upon the peculiar Genius of the Language in which the Prophets wrote, and on the common Customs of those Climates and Nations to this day, that are very different from our own.

A Third degree of Inspiration might be, when there were no discoveries of Future Events to be made; but good and holy Men were to be inwardly excited by God, to compose such Poems, Hymns, and Discourses, as should be of great use both to give men clearer and fuller apprehensions of Divine things, and also insensibly to charm them with a pleasant and exalted way of Treating them. And if the Providence of God should so order them in the management of their Composures, that it may afterwards appear that Predictions were intermixed with them; yet they are not to be called Prophets, unless God had revealed to them the mystical intent of such Predictions: So that though the Spirit of God Prophesied in them, yet they themselves not understanding it, are not be accounted Prophets. Of this last sort are the Books of the Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, &c.

According to the different Order of these Inspirations was the Old Testament divided into Three Volumes. The Inspiration of the New Testament, is all to be reduced to the first sort, except the Revelation, which is purely and strictly Prophetical. The other parts of the New Testament are writ after a softer and clearer Illumination; and in a Style suitable to it. Now because Enthusiasts and Impostors may falsly pretend to Divine Commissions and Inspirations, it is necessary (both for the undeceiving of those who may be mis-led by a hot and ungoverned Imagination, and for giving such an Authority to men truly Inspired, as may distinguish them from false Pretenders) that the man thus Inspired should have some evident Sign or other, either some miraculous Action that is visibly beyond the Powers of Nature, or some particular discovery of somewhat that is to come, which must be so expressed, that the accomplishment of it may shew it to be beyond the Conjectures of the most sagacious: By one or both of those a Man must prove, and the World must be convinced, that he is sent and directed by God. And if such men deliver their Message in Writing, we must receive such Writings as Sacred and Inspired.

In these Writings some parts are Historical, some Doctrinal, and some Elenchtical or Argumentative. As to the Historical part, it is certain that whatsoever is delivered to us, as a matter truly transacted, must be indeed so: But it is not necessary when Discourses are reported, that the Individual words should be set down just as they were said, it is enough if the effect of them is reported: Nor is it necessary that the Order of Time should be strictly observed, or that all the Conjunctions in such Relations should be understood severely according to their Grammatical meaning: It is visible that all the Sacred Writers, write in a diversity of Style, according to their different Tempers, and to the various Impressions that were made upon them. In that the Inspiration left them to the use of their Faculties, and to their previous Customs and Habits: The design of Revelation as to this part of its Subject, is only to give such Representations of Matters of Fact, as may both work upon, and guide our belief: But the Order of Time, and the strict words having no influence that way, the Writers might dispose them and express them variously, and yet all be exactly true. For the Conjunctive Particles do rather import that one passage comes to be related after another, than that it was really transacted after it.

As to the Doctrinal parts, that is, the Rules of Life which these Books set before us, or the Propositions that are offered to us in them, we must entirely acquiesce in these, as in the Voice of God who speaks to us by the means of a Person, whom he by his Authorizing him in so wonderful a manner, obliges us to hear and believe. But when these Writers come to Explain or Argue, they use many Figures that were well known in that Age: But because the Signification of a Figure is to be taken from common use, and not to be carried to the utmost extent that the words themselves will bear, we must therefore enquire as much as we can, into the Manner and Phraseology of the time in which such Persons lived, which with Relation to the New Testament will lead us far: And by this we ought to govern the Extent and Importance of these Figures.

As to their Arguings, we are further to consider, that sometimes they Argue upon certain Grounds, and at other times they go upon Principles, acknowledged and received by those with whom they dealt. It ought never to be made the only way of proving a thing, to found it upon the concessions of those with whom we deal; yet when a thing is once truly proved, it is a just and usual way of confirming it, or at least of silencing those who oppose it, to shew that it follows naturally from those Opinions and Principles that are received among them. Since therefore the Jews had at the time of the writing of the New Testament, a peculiar way of Expounding many Prophecies and Passages in the Old Testament, it was a very proper way to convince them, to alledge many places according to their Key and Methods of Exposition. Therefore when Divine Writers argue upon any point, we are always bound to believe the Conclusions that their Reasonings end in, as parts of Divine Revelation: But we are not bound to be able to make out or even to assent to all the Premises made use of by them in their whole extent; unless it appears plainly that they affirm the Premises as expresly as they do the Conclusions proved by them.

And thus far I have laid down such a Scheme concerning Inspiration and Inspired Writings, as will afford, to such as apprehend it aright, a Solution to most of these difficulties with which we are urged on the account of some passages in the Sacred Writings. The laying down a Scheme that asserts an immediate Inspiration which goes to the Stile and to every Tittle, and that denies any Error to have crept into any of the Copies, as it seems on the one hand to raise the Honour of the Scriptures very highly, so it lies open on the other hand to great difficulties which seem insuperable in that Hypothesis; whereas a middle way as it settles the Divine Inspiration of these Writings, and their being continued down genuine and unvitiated to us, as to all that, for which we can only suppose that Inspiration was given; so it helps us more easily out of all difficulties, by yielding that which serves to answer them, without weakening the Authority of the whole.

I come in the last place to examine the Negative Consequence, that arises out of this Head, which excludes those Books commonly called Apocryphal, that are here rejected, from being a part of the Canon: And this will be easily made out. The chief reason that presses us Christians to acknowledge the Old Testament, is the Testimony that Christ and his Apostles gave to those Books, as they were then received by the Jewish Church; to whom were committed the Oracles of God. Now it is not so much as pretended, that ever these Books were received among the Jews, or were so much as known to them. None of the Writers of the New Testament cite or mention them; neither Philo nor Josephus speak of them. Josephus on the contrary says, they had only 22 Books that deserved belief, but that those which were written after the time of Artaxerxes, were not of equal credit with the rest: And that in that Period they had no Prophets at all. The Christian Church was for some Ages an utter Stranger to those Books. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, being desired by Onesimus to give him a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament, took a Journey on purpose to the East to examine this matter at its Source: And having as he says made an exact Enquiry, he sent him the Names of them just as we receive the Canon; of which Eusebius says, that he has preserved it,²⁶ because it contained all those Books which the Church owned. Origen gives us the same Catalogue according to the Tradition of the Jews, who divided the Old Testament into 22 Books,²⁷ according to the Letters of their Alphabet. Athanasius reckons them up in the same manner to be 22, and he more distinctly says that he delivered those,²⁸ as they had received them by Tradition,²⁹ and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ, because some presumed to mix Apocryphal Books with the Divine Scriptures: And therefore he was set on it by the Orthodox Brethren, in order to declare the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition, and believed to be of Divine Inspiration. It is true, he adds, That besides these there were other Books which were not put into the Canon, but yet were appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who first come to be instructed in the way of Piety: And then he reckons up most of the Apocryphal Books. Here is the first mention we find of them, as indeed it is very probable they were made at Alexandria, by some of those Jews who lived there in great Numbers. Both Hilary and Cyril of Jerusalem give us the same Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament, and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the Tradition of the Ancients. Cyril says, That all other Books are to be put in a Second Order.³⁰ Gregory Nazienzen reckons up the 22 Books, and adds that none besides them are genuine. The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Jerom in several of his Prefaces. And that which should determine this whole matter, is,³¹ That the Council of Laodicea by an express Canon delivers the Catalogue of the Canonical Books as we do, decreeing that these only should be read in the Church. Now the Canons of this Council were afterwards received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church; so that here we have the concurring sense of the whole Church of God in this matter.

It is true, the Book of the Revelation not being reckoned in it, this may be urged to detract from its Authority: But it was already proved, that that Book was received much Earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures, so the design of this Canon being to establish the Authority of those Books that were to be read in the Church, the darkness of the Apocalypse making it appear reasonable not to read it publickly, that may be the reason why it is not mentioned in it, as well as in some later Catalogues.

Here we have four Centuries clear for our Canon, in Exclusion to all Additions. It were easy to carry this much further down, and to shew that these Books were never by any express definition received into the Canon, till it was done at Trent: And that in all the Ages of the Church even after they came to be much esteemed, there were divers Writers, and those generally the most learned of their time, who denied them to be a part of the Canon. At first many Writings were read in the Churches, that were in high reputation both for the sake of the Authors, and of the Contents of them, though they were never lookt on as a part of the Canon:³² Such were Clemens’s Epistle, the Books of Hermas, the Acts of the Martyrs, besides several other things which were read in particular Churches. And among these the Apocryphal Books came also to be read, as containing some valuable Books of Instruction, besides several Fragments of the Jewish History, which were perhaps too easily believed to be true. These therefore being usually read, they came to be reckoned among Canonical Scriptures: For this is the reason assigned in the Third Council of Carthage, for calling them Canonical, because they had received them from their Fathers as Books that were to be read in Churches: And the word Canonical was by some in those Ages used in a large sense, in opposition to spurious; so that it signified no more than that they were genuine. So much depends upon this Article, that it seemed necessary to dwell fully upon it, and to state it clearly.

It remains only to observe the Diversity between the Articles now Established, and those set forth by K. Edward. In the latter there was not a Catalogue given of the Books of Scripture, nor was there any distinction stated between the Canonical, and the Apocryphal Books. In those there is likewise a Paragraph, or rather a Parenthesis added after the words proved thereby, in these words, Although sometimes it may be admitted by God’s faithful People as Pious, and conducing unto Order and Decency: Which are now left out, because the Authority of the Church as to matters of Order and Decency, which was only intended to be asserted by this Period, is more fully explained and stated in the 35th Article.

Footnotes

1. Mat. 15.3▪ 6, 9. Joh. 5.39. ↩

2. Act. 17.11. ↩

3. 2 Tim. 3 15, 16. ↩

4. Luk. 1.4. John. 20 31. ↩

5. 2 Pet. 1 15. ↩

6. Iren. I. 3. c. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Tertul. de presc. Cap. 20, 21, 25, 27, 28. ↩

7. Lib. 3. Hist. c 39. c. 25. ↩

8. Eus. l. 2. Hist. c. 15. ↩

9. Lib. 3. cap. 11. ↩

10. Tert. l. 4. cont. Mar. cap. 1. Orig. apud Eus. lib. 6. cap. 25. ↩

11. Athan. in Synops. Conc. cap. 60. Carth. 3. c. 47. ↩

12. Dial. cum Trypho. ↩

13. Tertul. de Presc. cap. 36. ↩

14. Orig. Ep. ad African. Orig. Exhort. ad Martyr. Eusec. Hist. lib. 6. c. 20. Hieron. Ep. ad. Dardan. Cyr. Catech. 4. ↩

15. Apud Hieron. Tom. 4. ↩

16. Can. 60. Can. 47. ↩

17. Iren. l. 3. c. 38. Orig. l. 3. & 7. con. Cels. Dial. con. Marc. & Ep. ad Afric. Clem. Alex. Ignat. Ep. ad Ephe. Orig. Hom. 13. in Genes. Eus. Hist. l. 2. c. 22. l. 3. c· 24, 27. Hieron. Pref. in Ep. Jac. Orig. cont. Marcion. Firmil. Ep. 75. ap. Cypr. Eus. Hist. l. 3. c. 3. ↩

18. Iren. l. 1. c. 13. Clem. Alex. Strom. 2. Tertul. de Carne Chr. c. 24. Euseb. Hist. l. 6. c. 24. Tertul. de cultu faem. ↩

19. Clem. in Ep. ad Cor. Justin cont. Tryphon. Irenaeus l. 5. c. 30. Eus. Hist. l. 4. c. 24, 26. l. 5. c. 18. l. 7. c. 27. ↩

20. Luke 24.44. ↩

21. Rom. 3.2. ↩

22. 2 Chron. 34.14. ↩

23. Ch. 26.16. to the End of Deut. ↩

24. Deut. 18. 〈◊〉 36. to 〈◊〉 End. ↩

25. 1 Maccab. 1.56. ↩

26. Euseb. hist▪ l. 4. c. 26. ↩

27. In Psal. 1. ↩

28. In Synop. ↩

29. In Eppasch. ↩

30. Catech. 4. ↩

31. Can. 59. and 60. ↩

32. Can. 47. ↩