osity profitably in the business of their salva- is said by Tertullian to have rejected three of

tion, to visit the apostolical churches, in which their very authentic letters are recited, ipsa authenticæ literæ eorum recitantur." Then he goes on: "Is Achaia near you? You have Corinth. If you are not far from Macedonia, you have Philippi, you have Thessalonica. If you can go to Asia, you have Ephesus; but if you are near to Italy, you have Rome." I adduce this passage to show, that the distinct churches or Christian societies, to which St. Paul's epistles were sent, subsisted for some ages afterwards; that his several epistles were all along respectively read in those churches; that Christians at large received them from those churches, and appealed to those churches for their originality and authenticity.

passage so far favours our account of Marcion's objection, as it shows that the objection was supposed by Tertullian to have been founded in something which belonged to the nature of a private letter.

Nothing of the works of Marcion remains. Probably he was, after all, a rash, arbitrary, licentious critic (if he deserved indeed the name of critic,) and who offered no reason for his de termination. What St. Jerome says of him intimates this, and is besides founded in good sense: Speaking of him and Basilides, "If they assigned any reasons," says he, "why they did not reckon these epistles," viz. the First and Second to Timothy, and the Epistle to Titus,

the epistles which we now receive, viz. the two Epistles to Timothy and the Epistle to Titus. It appears to me not improbable, that Marcion might make some such distinction as this, that no apostolic epistle was to be admitted which was not read or attested by the church to which it was sent; for it is remarkable that, together. with these epistles to private persons, he rejected also the catholic epistles. Now the catholic epistles and the epistles to private persons agree in the circumstance of wanting this particular species of attestation. Marcion, it seems, acknowledged the epistle to Philemon, and is upbraided for his inconsistency in doing so by Tertullian, who asks " why, when he receiv ed a letter written to a single person, he should Arguing in like manner from citations and refuse two to Timothy and one to Titus comallusions, we have, within the space of a hun-posed upon the affairs of the church?" This dred and fifty years from the time that the first of St. Paul's epistles was written, proofs of almost all of them being read, in Palestine, Syria, the countries of Asia Minor, in Egypt, in that part of Africa which used the Latin tongue, in Greece, Italy, and Gault. I do not mean simply to assert, that within the space of a hundred and fifty years, St. Paul's epistles were read in those countries, for I believe that they were read and circulated from the beginning; but that proofs of their being so read occur within that period. And when it is considered how few of the primitive Christians wrote, and of what was written how much is lost, we are to account it extraordinary, or rather as a sure proof of the extensiveness of the reputation of" to be the apostle's, we would have endea these writings, and of the general respect in voured to have answered them, and perhaps which they were held, that so many testimon- might have satisfied the reader: but when they ies, and of such antiquity, are still extant. "In take upon them, by their own authority, to prothe remaining works of Irenæus, Clement of nounce one epistle to be Paul's and another not, Alexandria, and Tertullian, there are perhaps they can only be replied to in the same manmore and larger quotations of the small volume nert." Let it be remembered, however, that of the New Testament, than of all the works Marcion received ten of these epistles. His of Cicero, in the writings of all characters for authority, therefore, even if his credit had been several ages." We must add, that all the epis- better than it is, forms a very small exception tles of Paul come in for their full share of this to the uniformity of the evidence. Of Basiobservation; and that all the thirteen epistles, lides we know still less than we do of Marcion. except that to Philemon, which is not quoted The same observation, however, belongs to him, by Irenæus or Clement, and which probably es- viz. that his objection, as far as appears from caped notice merely by its brevity, are severally this passage of St. Jerome, was confined to the cited, and expressly recognised as St. Paul's by three private epistles. Yet is this the only opieach of these Christian writers. The Ebion-nion which can be said to disturb the consent ites, an early though inconsiderable Christian of the first two centuries of the Christian æra: sect, rejected St. Paul and his epistles§; that for as to Tatian, who is reported by Jerome is, they rejected these epistles, not because they alone to have rejected some of St. Paul's episwere not, but because they were St. Paul's; tles, the extravagant or rather delirious notions and because, adhering to the obligation of the into which he fell, take away all weight and Jewish law, they chose to dispute his doctrine credit from his judgment.If, indeed, Jeand authority. Their suffrage as to the gen-rome's account of this circumstance be correct; uineness of the epistles does not contradict that for it appears from much older writers than Jeof other Christians. Marcion, an heretical rome, that Tatian owned and used many of writer in the former part of the second century, these epistles+.

II. They, who in those ages disputed about

Lardner, vol. xiv. p. 455. † Ibid, vol xiv. p. 458 ‡ Ibid, vol. i. p. 313,

so many other points, agreed in acknowledging tion is thrown back upon internal marks of the Scriptures now before us. Contending sects spuriousness, or authenticity; and in these appealed to them in their controversies with the dispute is occupied. In which disputes it equal and unreserved submission. When they is to be observed, that the contested writings were urged by one side, however they might are commonly attacked by arguments drawn be interpreted or misinterpreted by the other, from some opposition which they betray to their authority was not questioned. "Reliqui" authentic history," to true epistles," to omnes," says Irenæus, speaking of Marcion, the "real sentiments or circumstances of the "falso scientiæ nomine inflati, scripturas qui- author whom they personate*;" which audem confitentur, interpretationes vero conver-thentic history, which true epistles, which real tunt*."

sentiments themselves, are no other than anIII. When the genuineness of some other cient documents, whose early existence and writings which were in circulation, and even of reception can be proved, in the manner in a few which are now received into the canon, which the writings before us are traced up to was contested, these were never called into dis- the age of their reputed author, or to ages near pute. Whatever was the objection, or whether to his. A modern who sits down to compose in truth there ever was any real objection, to the the history of some ancient period, has no authenticity of the Second Epistle of Peter, the stronger evidence to appeal to for the most Second and Third of John, the Epistle of James, confident assertion, or the most undisputed or that of Jude, or to the book of the Revela- fact that he delivers, than writings, whose tion of St. John; the doubts that appeared to genuineness is proved by the same medium have been entertained concerning them, ex- through which we evince the authenticity of ceedingly strengthen the force of the testimony ours. Nor, whilst he can have recourse to such as to those writings about which there was no authorities as these, does he apprehend any doubt; because it shows, that the matter was uncertainty in his accounts, from the suspicion a subject, amongst the early Christians, of ex- of spuriousness or imposture in his materials. amination and discussion; and that where V. It cannot be shown that any forgeries, there was any room to doubt, they did doubt. properly so called+, that is, writings publishWhat Eusebius hath left upon the subjected under the name of the person who did not is directly to the purpose of this observation. compose them, made their appearance in the Eusebius, it is well known, divided the eccle- first century of the Christian era, in which siastical writings which were extant in his century these epistles undoubtedly existed time into three classes: the "avavripinra, un-I shall set down under this proposition the contradicted," as he calls them in one chap- guarded words of Lardner himself: "There ter; or, "scriptures universally acknowledg- are no quotations of any books of them (spued," as he calls them in another: the "con-rious and apocryphal books) in the apostolical troverted, yet well known and approved by many ;" and the "spurious." What were the shades of difference in the books of the second, or of those in the third class; or what it was precisely that he meant by the term spurious, it is not necessary in this place to inquire. It is sufficient for us to find, that the thirteen epistles of St. Paul are placed by him in the first class without any sort of hesitation or doubt.

A

It is farther also to be collected from the chapter in which this distinction is laid down, that the method made use of by Eusebius, and by the Christians of his time, viz. the close of the third century, in judging concerning the sacred authority of any books, was to inquire after and consider the testimony of those who lived near the age of the Apostles+.”

fathers, by whom I mean Barnabas, Clement of Rome, Hermas, Ignatius, and Polycarp, whose writings reach from the year of our Lord 70 to the year 108. I say this confidently, because I think it has been proved." Lardner, vol. xii. p. 158.

Nor when they did appear were they much used by the primitive Christians. "Irenæus quotes not any of these books. He mentions some of them, but he never quotes them. The same may be said of Tertullian: he has mentioned a book called Acts of Paul and Thecla:' but it is only to condemn it. Clement of Alexandria and Origen have mentioned and quoted several such books, but never as authority, and sometimes with express marks of dislike. Eusebius quoted no such books in any of his works. He has mentioned them indeed, but how? Not by way of approba. tion, but to show that they were of little or no value; and that they never were received by the sounder part of Christians." Now, if with this, which is advanced after the most

IV. That no ancient writing, which is attested as these epistles are, hath had its authenticity disproved, or is in fact questioned. The controversies which have been moved concerning suspected writings, as the epistles, for instance, of Phalaris, or the eighteen epistles of Cicero, begin by showing that this attesta-Tunstal and Middleton upon certain suspected epistles See the tracts written in the controversy between tion is wanting. That being proved, the ques- ascribed to Cicero. *Iren, advers. Hær. quoted by Lardner, vol. xv. p. 425. Lardner, vol, viii, p. 106.

+ I believe that there is a great deal of truth in Dr. Lardner's observation, that comparatively few of those books which we call apocryphal were strictly and origi nally forgeries. See Lardner, vol. xii. p. 167, R

minute and diligent examination, we compare antiquity is entirely silent. It was unheard what the same cautious writer had before said of for sixteen centuries; and at this day, of our received Scriptures, "that in the works though it be extant, and was first found in of three only of the above-mentioned fathers, the Armenian language, it is not, by the there are more and larger_quotations of the Christians of that country, received into their small volume of the New Testament, than of Scriptures. I hope, after this, that there is all the works of Cicero in the writers of all no reader who will think there is any compecharacters for several ages;" and if with the tition of credit, or of external proof, between marks of obscurity or condemnation, which these and the received Epistles; or rather, accompanied the mention of the several apo- who will not acknowledge the evidence of au cryphal Christian writings, when they hap-thenticity to be confirmed by the want of suc pened to be mentioned at all, we contrast what cess which attended imposture. Dr. Lardner's work completely and in detail makes out concerning the writings which we defend, and what, having so made out, he thought himself authorised in his conclusion to assert, that these books were not only received from the beginning, but received with the greatest respect; have been publicly and solemnly read in the assemblies of Christians throughout the world, in every age from that time to this; early translated into the languages of divers countries and people; commentaries writ to explain and illustrate them; quoted by way of proof in all arguments of a religious nature; recommended to the perusal of unbelievers, as containing the authen-cult or imaginary, because it is incapable of tic account of the Christian doctrine; when we attend, I say, to this representation, we perceive in it not only full proof of the early notoriety of these books, but a clear and sensible line of discrimination, which separates these from the pretensions of any others.

When we take into our hands the letters which the suffrage and consent of antiquity hath thus transmitted to us, the first thing that strikes our attention is the air of reality and business, as well as of seriousness and conviction, which pervades the whole. Let the sceptic read them. If he be not sensible of these qualities in them, the argument can have no weight with him. If he be; if he perceive in almost every page the language of a mind actuated by real occasions, and operating upon real circumstances, I would wish it to be observed, that the proof which arises from this perception is not to be deemed oc

being drawn out in words, or of being conveyed to the apprehension of the reader in any other way, than by sending him to the books themselves.

And here, in its proper place, comes in the argument which it has been the office of these pages to unfold. St. Paul's Epistles are connected with the history by their particulari. ty, and by the numerous circumstances which are found in them. When we descend to an

The epistles of St. Paul stand particularly free of any doubt or confusion that might arise from this source. Until the conclusion of the fourth century, no intimation appears of any attempt whatever being made to coun-examination and comparison of these circumterfeit these writings; and then it appears only stances, we not only observe the history and of a single and obscure instance. Jerome, who the epistles to be independent documents unflourished in the year 392, has this expres- known to, or at least unconsulted by, each sion: "Legunt quidam et ad Laodicenses; other, but we find the substance, and oftensed ab omnibus exploditur;" there is also an times very minute articles, of the history, reEpistle to the Laodiceans, but it is rejected by cognised in the epistles, by allusions and reevery body. Theodoret, who wrote in the ferences, which can neither be imputed to deyear 423, speaks of this epistle in the same sign, nor, without a foundation in truth, be terms. Beside these, I know not whether accounted for by accident; by hints and exany ancient writer mentions it. It was cer- pressions, and single words dropping as it were tainly unnoticed during the first three centu- fortuitously from the pen of the writer, or ries of the church; and when it came after-drawn forth, each by some occasion proper to wards to be mentioned, it was mentioned on- the place in which it occurs, but widely rely to show, that, though such a writing did moved from any view to consistency or agreeexist, it obtained no credit. It is probable ment. These, we know, are effects which that the forgery to which Jerome alludes, is reality naturally produces, but which, without the epistle which we now have under that ti-reality at the bottom, can hardly be conceived tle. If so, as hath been already observed, it is nothing more than a collection of sentences from the genuine epistles; and was perhaps, at first, rather the exercise of some idle pen, than any serious attempt to impose a forgery upon the public. Of an Epistle to the Corinthians under St. Paul's name, which was brought into Europe in the present century,

to exist.

When therefore, with a body of external evidence, which is relied upon, and which experience proves may safely be relied upon, in appreciating the credit of ancient writings, we combine characters of genuineness and origi nality which are not found, and which, in the nature and order of things, cannot be expected to be found in spurious compositions; whatever difficulties we may meet with in other

topics of the Christian evidence, we can have II. Whereas it hath been insinuated, that little in yielding our assent to the following our Gospels may have been made up of reports conclusions: That there was such a person as and stories, which were current at the time, we St. Paul; that he lived in the age which we may observe that, with respect to the Epistles, ascribe to him; that he went about preach- this is impossible. A man cannot write the ing the religion of which Jesus Christ was the history of his own life from reports; nor, what founder; and that the letters which we now is the same thing, be led by reports to refer to read were actually written by him upon the passages and transactions in which he states. subject, and in the course of that his minis- himself to have been immediately present and try. active. I do not allow that this insinuation is

And if it be true that we are in possession applied to the historical part of the New Tesof the very letters which St. Paul wrote, let tament with any colour of justice or probabili, us consider what confirmation they afford to ty; but I say, that to the Epistles it is not apthe Christian history. In my opinion they plicable at all.

substantiate the whole transaction. The great III. These letters prove that the converts object of modern research is to come at the to Christianity were not drawn from the barepistolary correspondence of the times. Amidst barous, the mean, or the ignorant set of men the obscurities, the silence, or the contradic- which the representations of infidelity would tions of history, if a letter can be found, we sometimes make them. We learn from letters regard it as the discovery of a land-mark; as the character not only of the writer, but, in that by which we can correct, adjust, or sup- some measure, of the persons to whom they ply the imperfections and uncertainties of other are written. To suppose that these letters accounts. One cause of the superior credit were addressed to a rude tribe, incapable of which is attributed to letters is this, that the thought or reflection, is just as reasonable as facts which they disclose generally come out to suppose Locke's Essay on the Human Unincidentally, and therefore without design to derstanding to have been written for the inmislead the public by false or exaggerated ac- struction of savages. Whatever may be thought counts. This reason may be applied to St. of these letters in other respects, either of dicPaul's epistles with as much justice as to any tion or argument, they are certainly removed letters whatever. Nothing could be farther as far as possible from the habits and comprefrom the intention of the writer than to record hension of a barbarous people. any part of his history. That his history was IV. St. Paul's history, I mean so much of in fact made public by these letters, and has it as may be collected from his letters, is so imby the same means been transmitted to future plicated with that of the other apostles, and ages, is a secondary and unthought-of effect. with the substance indeed of the Christian The sincerity therefore of the apostle's decla- history itself, that I apprehend it will be found rations cannot reasonably be disputed; at least impossible to admit St. Paul's story (I do not we are sure that it was not vitiated by any de- speak of the miraculous part of it) to be true, sire of setting himself off to the public at large. and yet to reject the rest as fabulous. For inBut these letters form a part of the muniments stance, can any one believe that there was such of Christianity, as much to be valued for their a man as Paul, a preacher of Christianity in contents, as for their originality. A more in- the age which we assign to him, and not beestimable treasure the care of antiquity could lieve that there was also at the same time such not have sent down to us. Beside the proof a man as Peter and James, and other apostles, they afford of the general reality of St. Paul's who had been companions of Christ during history, of the knowledge which the author of his life, and who after his death published and the Acts of the Apostles had obtained of that avowed the same things concerning him which history, and the consequent probability that he Paul taught? Judea, and especially Jerusalem, was, what he professes himself to have been, a was the scene of Christ's ministry. The witcompanion of the apostle's; beside the support nesses of his miracles lived there. St. Paul, they lend to these important inferences, they by his own account, as well as that of his hismeet specifically some of the principal objec- torian, appears to have frequently visited that tions upon which the adversaries of Christian-city; to have carried on a communication with ity have thought proper to rely. In particu- the church there; to have associated with the lar they show,rulers and elders of that church, who were I. That Christianity was not a story set on some of them apostles; to have acted, as occafoot amidst the confusions which attended and sions offered, in correspondence, and sometimes immediately preceded the destruction of Jeru-in conjunction with them. Can it, after this, salem; when many extravagant reports were he doubted, but that the religion and the gecirculated, when men's minds were broken by neral facts relating to it, which St. Paul apterror and distress, when amidst the tumults pears by his letters to have delivered to the that surrounded them inquiry was impractica-several churches which he established at a disble. These letters show incontestably that the tance, were at the same time taught and pubreligion had fixed and established itself before lished at Jerusalem itself, the place where the this state of things took place. business was transacted; and taught and pub

lished by those who had attended the founder | meant by charity here; did ever enthusiast, I

of the institution in his miraculous, or pretendedly miraculous, ministry?

It is observable, for so it appears both in the Epistles and from the Acts of the Apostles, that Jerusalem, and the society of believers in that city, long continued the centre from which the missionaries of the religion issued, with which all other churches maintained a correspondence and connexion, to which they referred their doubts, and to whose relief, in times of public distress, they remitted their charitable assistance. This observation I think material, because it proves that this was not the case of giving our accounts in one country of what is transacted in another, without afford-siderations on the Conversion, &c. ing the hearers an opportunity of knowing whether the things related were credited by any, or even published, in the place where they are reported to have passed.

say, prefer that benevolence" (which we may add is attainable by every man)" to faith and to miracles, to those religious opinions which he had embraced, and to those supernatural graces and gifts which he imagined he had acquired; nay, even to the merit of martyrdom? Is it not the genius of enthusiasm to set moral virtues infinitely below the merit of faith; and of all moral virtues to value that least which is most particularly enforced by St. Paul, a spirit of candour, moderation, and peace? Certainly neither the temper nor the opinions of a man subject to fanatic delusions are to be found in this passage." Lord Lyttelton's Con

I see no reason therefore to question the integrity of his understanding. To call him a visionary, because he appealed to visions; or an enthusiast, because he pretended to inspira tion, is to take the whole question for granted. It is to take for granted that no such visions or inspirations existed: at least it is to assume,

V. St. Paul's letters furnish evidence (and what better evidence than a man's own letters can be desired?) of the soundness and sobriety of his judgment. His caution in distinguish-contrary to his own assertions, that he had no ing between the occasional suggestions of in- other proofs than these to offer of his mission, spiration, and the ordinary exercise of his na- or of the truth of his relations. tural understanding, is without example in the history of human enthusiasm. His morality is every where calm, pure, and rational; adapted to the condition, the activity, and the business of social life, and of its various relations; free from the over-scrupulousness and austerities of superstition, and from what was more perhaps to be apprehended, the abstractions of quietism, and the soarings and extravagancies of fanaticism. His judgment concerning a hesitating conscience; his opinion of the moral indifferency of many actions, yet of the prudence and even the duty of compliance, where non-compliance would produce evil effects upon VI. These letters are decisive as to the sufthe minds of the persons who observed it, is as ferings of the author; also as to the distressed correct and just as the most liberal and enlight-state of the Christian church, and the dangers ened moralist could form at this day. The accuracy of modern ethics has found nothing to amend in these determinations.

What Lord Lyttelton has remarked of the preference ascribed by St Paul to inward rectitude of principle above every other religious accomplishment, is very material to our present purpose. "In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, chap. xiii. 1-3. St. Paul has these words: Though I speak with the tongue of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Is this the language of enthusiasm? Did ever enthusiast prefer that universal benevolence which comprehendeth all moral virtues, and which, as appeareth by the following verses, is

One thing I allow, that his letters every where discover great zeal and earnestness in the cause in which he was engaged; that is to say, he was convinced of the truth of what he taught; he was deeply impressed, but not more so than the occasion merited, with a sense of its importance. This produces a corresponding animation and solicitude in the exercise of his ministry. But would not these considerations, supposing them to be well founded, have holden the same place, and produced the same effect, in a mind the strongest and the most sedate?

which attended the preaching of the Gospel.

"Whereof I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for his body's sake, which is the church." Col. ch. i. 24.

"If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." 1 Cor. ch. xv. 19,

"Why stand we in jeopardy every hour? 1 protest by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily If, after the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not ?" 1 Cor. ch. xv. 30, &c.

"If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified toge ther. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Rom. ch. viii. 17, 18.

"Who shall separate us from the love of