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CHAP. V.

ON THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTA

MENT.

If the enquiry purfued in the preceding

chapter respecting the canonical Jewish Scriptures be a matter of high importancè to Chriftians; a fimilar enquiry respecting the books of the New Teftament is of ftill greater moment. For the Divine authority of the latter books is not only the ground, on which the most obvious proofs of the authenticity and inspiration of the former depend; but is the foundation of the whole fabric of Chriftian faith.

The most perfpicuous method of conducting the prefent investigation will be to ftate, in the first place, the nature and purport of each of the books of the New Teftament: and, in the fecond place, to lay before the reader a brief account of the

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concurring proofs which demonftrate that the books, fingly and collectively, were written by the persons whose names they feverally bear, and under the superintending guidance of the Holy Spirit of God.

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The writings comprised in the New Teftament (a) may be divided into three claffes; hiftorical, epiftolary, and prophetical. In all of them doctrinal truths of the

(a) The original word, Aabnen, fignifies either a teftament (that is to fay, a will) or a covenant. It is exprefsly applied by St. Paul, 2 Cor. iii. 14. with the epithet "Old" to the Jewish Scriptures. From this circumftance, and from the repeated ufe of the term by Chrift and his difciples as characteristic of the Chriftian difpenfation, Matt. xxvi. 28. Hebrews, vii. 22. viii. 8. it has been affigned from a very early period of the church to the Chriftian Scriptures. The term Covenant" would however have been on the whole a more appropriate tranflation. The word "Teftament," in its natural meaning is not very applicable to the Jewish canon: but may be afcribed with pertinence to the collection of the facred writings of the Apostles and Evangelifts; as implying a book wherein the inheritance of the kingdom of Heaven is bequeathed and fealed to true Chriftians, as children and heirs of God, through the death of Jefus Chrift, and the death of Jefus Chrift as the teftator is recorded and applied to their full advantage. See Hebrews, ix. 15-17. ·

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utmoft confequence are included: and in the historical and epiftolary books prophecies are occafionally delivered. With this explanation the preceding divifion may be ufefully made.

The hiftorical books are

the four Gofpels (b) and the Acts of the Apoftles. The epiftolary books are thofe to which the title of Epiftles is always prefixed. Of the prophetical clafs there is only one book, that of the Apocalypfe (c), or Revelations.

The Gofpels contain a recital of fuch leading particulars relating to the life and difcourfes of Jefus Chrift, as appeared to

the writers most effential to be recorded for the information and benefit of the Chriftian church. Of thefe Gospels there 'are four, written by four different perfons, and according to internal marks, under different circumstances and at different periods.

(b) Gofpel, a word of Saxon etymology, hás precifely the fame meaning as the Greek word Evayyor, good tidings.

(ε) Αποκάλυψις, a revelation.

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The Gofpel compofed by Saint Matthew was confeffedly written antecedently to any of the other three; though learned enquirers vary in their conclufions as to the precife date to be affigned to it. Some (d) have thought, on no flight grounds, that it was not compofed until A. D. 61. At the fame time confiderable weight belongs to the arguments which carry back the date to within fome few years of the death of our Saviour. The book evidently was compofed primarily for the use of Jewish converts. The Christian authors of the fecond and many following centuries, in fpeaking of this Gofpel, concur in affirming it to have been originally written in Hebrew. A Greek tranflation however is acknowledged to have been speedily made; and, in confequence of the deftruction of Jerufalem and the Jewish state foon to have been in more general use than the original. That every other part of the New Teftament, the Epistle to the Hebrews excepted,

(d) See the fubject difcuffed in Bishop Percy's Key to the New Teftament; a manual of great utility.

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was compofed from the first in Greek is a fact univerfally admitted ; and the affertion of fome writers, who have maintained that epistle, as it stands in our Greek Testaments, to be only a version from the Hebrew, appears not to be supported by adequate proof. The Greek language was, in fact, familiar to the Jews long before the time of our Saviour and was incomparably fuperior to the Hebrew tongue as a vehicle of inftruction to Gentile converts and to fucceeding ages. Saint Matthew, from being a publican, or collector of taxes under the Ro man jurifdiction, became one of the twelve apostles of Chrift; and was an eye-witness of almost all the transactions which he relates. It is uncertain in what countries he exercised his apoftolical labours after the afcenfion of his mafter; and equally uncertain whether those labours were termi

nated by a natural death or by martyrdom.

The Gospel of Saint Mark was written by that Mark, whom St. Peter signalises by the

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