it was also with the early Christians. They proved all things, and held fast that only which was good. "We receive Peter and the other apostles, as Christ, (said Serapion, bishop of Antioch;) but, as skilful men, we reject those writings which are falsely ascribed to them."

Here we might safely leave the question of authenticity; for, if the evidence adduced does not prove the New Testament books to have proceeded from the apostles, no book of a passed age has any pretension to authenticity; that Milton wrote Paradise Lost, must be considered unworthy of credit; that the orations bearing the name of Cicero, were composed or delivered by that orator, must be condemned as one of the apocryphal inventions of some age of monks and darkness. "I find more sure marks of authenticity in the New Testament (said sir Isaac Newton) than in any profane history whatever."

But, inasmuch as your minds cannot be furnished with too much information on this fundamental subject, I will reserve some important views for a subsequent lecture.

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There is a lesson for the believer, in what has been exhibited, of great practical interest. It is manifest, from the testimonies adduced, that the scriptures of the New Testament were treated, among the primitive Christians, not only as true, and possessed of inspired authority, in reference to all questions of doctrine and obedience; but as very precious, more to be desired than gold." They loved them as an inestimable treasure; they kept them, consulted them, and exalted them in their hearts, and houses, and assemblies, as a consolation for every trial, a guide in every difficulty, a gift of God, for the preservation and honour of which they were ready to shed their blood. They felt them to be "profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness." How does all this rebuke the

lukewarmness with which the scriptures are regarded by too many professing Christians of the present day. In primitive times, believers would read them, though they paid for the privilege with their lives. In these days, multitudes, who call themselves believers, can hardly be persuaded to search the scriptures, though every facility is afforded, and the Bible is in honour. What a tremendous account must he give to God, who neglects His word! Let us imitate not only the affectionate devotion with which the primitive Christians read the Bible, but also the diligent zeal with which they surmounted innumerable obstacles, in circulating copies of its books through the world. We possess facilities for such an object which they had not. The press is placed in our hands for this very purpose. It is our gift of tongues. Let us realize the responsibility we are under, for the improvement of so rich a talent; and speed its work, and multiply its branches of application, till the sound of the Gospel has gone out into all the earth, and the words of Jesus to the ends of the world; and there is nothing hid from the light thereof.

LECTURE III.

AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF THE NEW

TESTAMENT.

OUR attention was exclusively occupied, during the last lecture, in tracing up the line of testimony by which the church of Christ, in these days, is certified that her sacred books, composing the volume of the New Testament, are those very books which were written by the apostles of the Lord Jesus. A series of attestations was followed up, by which we were conducted into the very age and presence of the apostles, and enabled to inquire of

those who, having been their contemporaries, and in habits of intercourse with them, must necessarily have known what books they wrote. A mass of evidence was obtained, by which the authenticity of the New Testament was placed on the most immoveable basis. But, inasmuch as we are now laying the foundation of our subsequent and more direct arguments for the truth of christianity as a divine revelation; it is of the greatest importance that, in respect to this preliminary subject, every mind be well assured, and that nothing of importance to the impressiveness, as well as sufficiency, of the evidence, be omitted. In the present lecture, therefore, we pursue still farther the question to which the last was devoted.

From the whole tenor of the previous lecture, it is evident that the canon of the New Testament, in other words, the collection of those books which were considered as the inspired and authoritative writings of the apostles and evangelists, to the exclusion of all others, was not made without great care, and the most deliberate, intelligent investigation. Such is the witnessing of an eminent writer of the fourth century. "Our canonical books, (says Augustine,) which are of the highest authority among us, have been settled with great care: they ought to be few, lest their value should be diminished; and yet they are so many, and written by so many persons, that their agreement, throughout, is wonderful."* The method pursued by the early christians in determining what books had a just claim to the character of canonical scriptures, was precisely that by which we have been investigating the same subject. It was not enough, for the reception of a writing, that it came to them under the name of an apostle, and was considered by some as justly entitled to that honour. Its * Lardner, ii. 596.

descent was carefully traced. How was it regarded by the preceding generation, and by the generation before that? Was it known by those who lived nearest the time and the person associated with its clains? Had it been received by the churches; referred to and quoted, as possessing canonical authority, by christian writers since the period of its general publication? Had it been handed down by the general and concurrent tradition of the church, written and unwritten, as the work of the writer whose name it bears? Such was the mode which, we know from the remaining works of Irenæus, Tertullian, Eusebius, Cyril, and Augustine, &c., was employed in their days, and in all times of the primitive church. "The books of the canonical scriptures (says Augustine), established in the times of the apostles, and confirmed by the testimony of the succession of bishops and churches, in all following times, are placed in a peculiar degree of authority, to which the judgment and understanding of all pious men are subject."

The numerous catalogues which have descended to us from the early centuries, are sufficient evidence of the care with which the canon of the New Testament was settled. In primitive times, when, from a variety of causes, spurious books abounded, and the distant and scattered churches, incapable of much intercourse with those near the centre of christian light, were most liable to be deceived, these catalogues were of the greatest importance. How numerous they must have been, may be, in some wise, conceived from the fact that, although a very small portion only of the works of the first four centuries are extant, there are among them no less than thirteen independent catalogues, all of them composed by authors scattered over only about one hundred and eighty, out of the first four hundred years after the birth of Christ.

The same care is seen in the pains that were taken to obtain the most exact information as to the authenticity of the books bearing apostolic names; as well as from the decisive censure and aversion with which an attempt to pass a spurious work upon the church was visited. Pious and learned heads of the churches used to journey to Palestine, and reside there for a considerable length of time, for the express object of obtaining whatever valuable knowledge might be found there, as to the New Testament writings. And of the treatment bestowed upon attempted forgeries, we have an example in the case of a certain presbyter of Asia, soon after the death of St. John, who published a book, which is still extant, under the title of the Acts of Paul and Thecla. The attempt at imposition was charged upon the author, and confessed. Whereupon he was degraded from his office, and the whole matter was notified to the churches, that they might feel the need of the strictest care thereafter.*

The gradual steps by which the books of the New Testament were multiplied to their present number, afforded the best opportunity for a careful and accurate determination of their authenticity. Had they all appeared at once, claiming, in their collective form, to be received by the churches as inspired scripture; the attention of Christians being thus divided among twenty-seven independent writings which professed to have been written by eight different authors, the diligence of their investigation would have been also divided; its accuracy would have been endangered, and the opportunity of imposition greatly increased. But such was not the case. The books of the New Testament were published singly. They came before the churches, one by one, with considerable intervals between * Lardner, i. 435.