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SERM.III tions it, not as fomething new,) that every Sunday the Prophetical Writings, and the Memoirs of the Apostles were read publickly in the Christian Congregations; can it be doubted but he meant thofe very Writings of the Apostles, whom he fo frequently cites in his own? Add to this, that the Syriack Verfion, which several learned Men have, I think, proved to be made in or near the Times of the Apoftles, but is undoubtedly of great Antiquity, agrees exactly (fome Differences not material excepted,) with our prefent Canon. If the prefent Scriptures then were Forgeries; either they were published in the Apoftolical Age, or not. If they were, then the Apostles, who made it their Bufinefs to propagate fincere and unmixed Truth, would not fee their pious Labours defeated, but would take Care to unmask the Imposture. Of this we have a pregnant Inftance in St. John. No fooner were the Acts of Paul and Thecla forged, than he took Care to detect, convict, and degrade the Author of them, who was a Presbyter, and gave Notice of it to the Afiatic Churches; learn from Tertullian *.

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But if they were published after the SELL Apoftolical Age, then it will be impoffible to account how they came to be received every where, in fo fhort a Time with an univerfal Agreement, in Countries: fome hundreds of Miles diftant from one another, without any Oppofition, by Perfons who were rigidly tenacious of whatever was Apoftolical, as appears by the early Controverfy about Eafter, by Perfons who facrificed their Lives for the Truths contained in thofe Books. Tertulliand appealing to the Apoftolical Churches, giveth us to understand, that in his Time*, ipfæ authen tica Literæ eorum recitantur. the very "authentic Letters of the Apostles were "read there;" where, by authentic, he must mean Autographa, the Apostles Hand Writing; otherwife why fhould he fingle out and specify the Churches planted by the Apoftles? The genuine Copies of their Writings in Greek, if that was all he meant, were certainly read in other Churches, befides those which were planted by the Apostles.

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Great Noife I know has been made about the many Spurious Pieces: But the Queftion, in fhort, is this, ft, Whether * Tertull, de Præfcript. Cap. 36.

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SERM.III thofe fpurious Pieces were generally received in the early Ages? If they can prove this, they will fay fomething to the Purpose to invalidate the prefent Canon: If they can. not, then those Forgeries cannot be put upon an equal Foot with the prefent Scripture. For the Argument for the prefent Scripture is this, that it is incredible, fuch a Number of good and learned Men, without any interested Views, in the most dif tant Countries, fhould combine together in a Cheat, or be impofed upon by one. It is much easier to fuppofe a false Statute Book put upon a whole Nation, than a fpurious Bible put upon the whole Chri ftian World, wherefoever difperfed, without a Discovery.

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2dly, Can any one Martyr be produced for the fuppofititious Pieces? No, on the contrary, those who difagreed with the Apoftolical Churches, and introduced wild and abfurd Notions, held it unneceffary to fuffer Martyrdom. Justin Martyr (Apol. 2d.) makes it the distinguishing Character of all the Heretics in his Age, that they were fo far from fuffering, that they never were perfecuted for their Religion. Tertullian (Scorpiacon) calls them Martyriorum Re

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fragatores, Decliners of Martyrdom. They SERM.III. were too wife to part with their Lives for Tuch chimerical and romantic Inventions. Whereas feveral thoufands expired leifurely in ftudied Torments, attefting the Truth of the Gofpels, when they might be eafily fatisfied of their Genuineness by the concurring Teftimony of the Chriftian World, as well as by Tradition, from the Churches planted by the Apostles.

3dly, Whoever will give himself the Trouble to read over the Fragments of thefe Forgeries, preferved by the Ancients, and collected by the Moderns, may eafily fee they carry their own Confutation along with them; they carry evident Marks of Spurioufnefs. And when he compares them with the genuine Productions of the infpired Writers, he will find that Paffage of Cicero applicable, Opinionum commenta delet Dies, Naturæ judicia confirmat. The former were like mishapen Monsters, which are very short lived; the latter, like the genuine Productions of Nature, that have ftrong Stamina, gradually increafed in Strength. They weathered out the Storm, and outlived the Rage of ten Perfecutions. It need not, I think, stagger the Faith of

any,

SERM.III. any, that the Gnofticks, who patronized abominable Impurities; that the Manicha

ans and Encratites, who held two inde-
pendent Principles, and Bafilides with his
Followers, who maintained the Lawfulness
of unnatural Luft, fhould reject the Scrip-
tures, and forge new ones. They were
against the Gospels for this very good Rea-
fon, because the Gofpels were against them.
They affigned no Reasons why they rejected
fome Parts of Scripture, and admitted o-
thers; but
were acted by Caprice and arbi-
trary Humour, unless this may pass for a
Reafon, that they pretended to be wiser than
the Apostles, and able to correct them. See
Irenæus, Lib. 3.

Difmiffing therefore thefe Heretics, it will be material to observe, that the Scriptures vifibly bear that Stamp of Antiquity, which they pretend to, that they are conformable to the Genius of that Age and Nation, in which they were faid to be penned; that there are in them no Anachronisms, no Miftakes about the Tenets, religious Rites, and Variety of Sects among the fews, at that particular Juncture; no Blunders about those several eminent Perfonages, which then acted in a public Ca

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