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the works of Irenæus, which have descended to the present age, we no where find a professed catalogue of the books of the New Testament; and his testimony must be collected from his various quotations, and a few detached remarks. In the first chapter of his third book against Heresies, there is a passage, in which he expressly ascribes the four Gospels to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. This testimony will not be invalidated by any mistake, which Irenæus, may have made respecting the circumstances, under which he supposed, that St. Matthew's Gospel was written. He says namely, that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel among the Jews, when St. Paul and St. Peter were founding the Church at Rome. Though Irenæus was probably misinformed in regard to this particular circumstance, his testimony to the main fact, that our Gospels were written by the persons, to whom they are ascribed, is not therefore to be rejected. Still less is it to be rejected on account of any fanciful reason, which he has elsewhere assigned, of there being four and only four authentic Gospels. Testimony to a fact is not destroyed by an opinion, however absurd, which the witness considers as the cause of its happening. The testimony therefore of Irenæus to the authenticity of our four Gospels may be safely admitted. And his quotations from

them are so numerous, that they occupy more than twelve folio columns in the index of scripture passages annexed to the Benedictine edition. In the fourteenth Chapter of his third Book he expressly ascribes the Acts of the Apostles to St. Luke the companion of St. Paul: and his quotations from that book are very numerous. Of the Epistles of St. Paul, he has largely quoted from those to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Galatians, the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians. He has quoted likewise from the Epistles to Timothy and Titus: and all these Epistles he has repeatedly ascribed to St. Paul. But he has none from the Epistle to Philemon, at which we need not be surprised, as that Epistle contains no points of doctrine, and could afford therefore no matter for quotation in writings, which were all controversial. On the question, whether the Epistle to the Hebrews was written by St Paul, Irenæus is silent. But we must not attach to his silence more importance, than it deserves. Irenæus, though born a Greek, was transplanted to the Latin Church, which then rejected the Epistle to the Hebrews. If therefore, he had quoted it as authority in controversial writings, he would have afforded his adversaries this ready answer, that he produced as authority what was not allowed by his own Church. And since he has no where

asserted, that St. Paul was not the author of that Epistle, his mere silence argues rather the custom of the Latin Church, (as it is termed by Jerom) than the opinion of Irenæus himself. Of the ✓ Catholic Epistles Irenæus has quoted (according to the index in the Benedictine edition) from the Epistle of St. James, both Epistles of St. Peter, and the first and second of St. John. That he has never quoted the third Epistle of St. John is no argument whatever against it. As it contains no doctrine, a quotation from it in the works of Irenæus was not to be expected. His silence on the Epistle of St. Jude has been considered by some writers as an argument, either that the Epistle was unknown to him, or that he did not consider it as a book of authority. But his silence admits of another solution, and one which is not improbable, namely, that the particular controversies, in which he was engaged, did not require a quotation from that Epistle. And this solution leaves its authenticity unimpaired. On the book of Revelation his testimony is clear and positive. He has not only quoted it in numerous instances, but has expressly ascribed it to St. John the Apostle *. And Irenæus from his acquaintance with Polycarp the disciple of

* Adv. Hæres. Lib. IV. c. 20. §. 11. Lib. V. c. 26. init.

St. John, had the means of obtaining certain information on this subject.

Lastly, we may observe on the quotations of Irenæus, that they bear ample testimony, as well to the integrity, as to the authenticity of the New Testament. For those quotations are so numerous, and many of them so long, as to afford undoubted evidence, that the books of the New Testament, which were known to the disciple of Polycarp, are the same books, which have descended to the present age.

Here then we will conclude the catalogue of our authorities for the authenticity of the New Testament. In the next Lecture shall be given the result of the inquiries, which have been instituted in the present.

LECTURE XXV.

IT T appears from the preceding Lecture, that all the books of the New Testament, which we receive at present, were received in the fourth century, as the works of the authors to whom they are ascribed. They were received as such by Jerom the most learned of the Latin Fathers: and if the testimony of Jerom required support from a contemporary in the Latin Church, we might add the Catalogue which Augustine has given in his treatise of Christian Doctrine,* and in which he distinctly enumerates every book, which is now contained in the New Testament. Among the Greek Fathers of the fourth century, we have seen, that Athanasius and Epiphanius have likewise given complete Catalogues of the books of the New Testament: and if the Catalogue, which is given by Gregory of Nazianzum, contains not the book of Revelation, the omission

* Tom. III. P. i. p. 23, ed. Benedict.

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