D. External evidence resumed:-Testimony of Polycarp.Polycarp, in his Epistle to the Philippians, supposed to have been written about A. D. 107, has passages and expressions from Matthew, Luke, the Acts; St. Paul's Epistles to the Philippians, Ephesians, Galatians, Corinthians, Romans, Thessalonians, Colossians, 1 Timothy; 1 Ep. of John; and 1 of Peter; and makes particular mention of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. Indeed his whole Epistle consists of phrases and sentiments taken from the New Testament. To the references in the margin might be added, C. 3. ñτis éσtì μýτYρ távτwv vμov, from Galat. iv. 26.-C. 6. Πάντα ἡμῶν σκοπεῖται (or μωμοσκοπεῖται), καὶ λέληθεν αὐτὸν οὐδὲν, οὔτε λογισμῶν, οὔτε ἐννοιῶν, οὔτε τι τῶν κρυπτῶν τῆς Kapdías. This is manifestly taken from Heb. iv. 12, 13. καρδίας. 3 E. Testimony of Heretics.-The Heretics also, who were contemporaries with the Apostles and Apostolical Fathers, bear Eusebius, should have been imposed upon by a forgery, which it must have been comparatively easy to detect; nor is it less improbable, that the letters of a bishop so highly beloved and respected as the martyred bishop of Antioch, collected as they had been for religious uses by his surviving friend, should have been so grossly neglected as to occasion their utter destruction within so short a period. At all events, it must be allowed that Polycarp was in possession of the genuine epistles of Ignatius. Two of them he mentions expressly; four out of the other five were written in his presence at Smyrna; and the fifth, addressed to the Philadelphians, was written at the same place and at the same time as that to Polycarp himself, and forwarded by his deacon, Burrhus, to its place of destination. There can be no doubt that these copies passed unimpaired into the hands of Irenæus, the disciple and friend of Polycarp; and Eusebius (H. E. v. 8) relates, that there were many quotations from them in works of that Father, which are now lost. If, therefore, such quotations had not appeared in the epistles of Ignatius, according to the transcript in the possession of Eusebius, their absence, or any variation in matter or manner, would have immediately detected the fraud and led to its exposure. We may further add that Origen, who was born some time before the death of Irenæus, has left two citations from these epistles, which are found in our copies; and from Origen to Eusebius the interval was too short to admit of the destruction of one series of the Ignatian Letters and the substitution of another. It is but reasonable to conclude, therefore, that the epistles which we now have, as divested of the corruptions which had been introduced into them subsequently to the time of Eusebius by Usher and Vossius, are the genuine writings of that Father. The interpolated copies are evidently forgeries of the sixth century; and the support which they lend to the Arian heresy plainly evinces the motive with which they were executed.-EDIT.] 3 On all points connected with the early heretics, the student is referred to the Bampton Lectures of the late learned and excellent Dr. Burton. Many Apocryphal books of the New Testament are still extant; and will be found in Jones' "Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament." Oxford, 1827.-EDIT. their testimony to the existence of the New Testament; and most of them had their forged or interpolated Gospels and Epistles, as knowing that without something of this kind they could not hope to get and retain any followers. Simon the magician, and his disciples, are said to have composed books for the propagation of their stupid doctrines, and to have ascribed those books to Christ and to the Apostles, that they might impose them upon silly people. If so, this was done in opposition to the books of the New Testament, and in imitation of them. The Christians afterwards were even with this Reprobate, for they related many an idle story about him, and also made him a more considerable impostor than probably he ever was, though he seduced several poor wretches. The Gnostics admitted some, and rejected other parts of the New Testament. The Cerinthians received part of St. Matthew's Gospel, and rejected everything else; particularly the Epistles of St. Paul, whom they had in great abomination. The Ebionites and Nazarenes had a "Gospel according to the Hebrews," or a Hebrew Gospel of St. Matthew, corrupted and interpolated. They had also other forged books bearing the names of Apostles. The Basilidians admitted the New Testament, but with such alterations as they judged proper: and so did the Valen tinians. The Carpocratians made use of the Gospel of St. Matthew." These old heretics went about in quest of fools, whom they had the art to turn into madmen; hic homines prorsum ex stultis insanos facit—an art, which is not to be reckoned amongst the deperdita. Before the end of the first century, the world was pestered with the disciples of Simon; Menander, Saturninus, and Basilides, concerning whom see Le Clerc, Hist. Eccl. The Basilidians made 365 heavens, and were better castlebuilders than those who give us schemes of the seven heavens, which is a poor inconsiderable number. Basilides required of his followers five years' silence, which was a proper method, as Le Clerc observes, to make an experiment of their folly; and indeed 103 4 See Tillemont, Hist. Eccl. ii. pp. 41, 51, 59, 109, 220, 225, 261, Quarto Edit. to which I shall always refer. he might be sure that the scholar was mad in good earnest, who, with a profound submission and silence, had paid so long an attendance on a knave that taught and did a thousand absurdities. Basilides, in all probability, only required this silence from his disciples, when they were in his company, and was so great a talker, that he suffered nobody else to put in a word. His lectures upon the 365 heavens could not take up less time than a year, and he would never have ended them, if he had been interrupted, and obliged to answer doubters and cavillers. F. Collateral Testimony.-The predictions of Christ concerning the calamities of the Jews, could not have been inserted as interpolations after the event ;-(1.) Because they are incidentally placed up and down' in the gospels, by way of parable, or in answer to questions, or on account of some circumstance of time and place bringing on the discourse.-(2.) Because the books of the New Testament were received by Christians, and copied, and widely dispersed, and perhaps translated, from their first appearance.—(3.) Because these predictions in the gospels are alluded to, or the same thing is taught, in other parts of the New Testament.-(4.) Because no Jews or Pagans ever reproached the Christians with inserting them: not Trypho, not Celsus, not Porphyry, not Julian.-(5.) Because there is in 5 For example :-Matt. v. 5, Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth. (This was literally fulfilled, when the believing Jews returned to their own country, after the destruction of Jerusalem); x. 23 ; xv. 13 ; xvi. 28; xxi. 19, 41, 44; xxii. 7; xxiii. 36; Luke xi. 50; xiii. 5, 9; xvii. 24; xix. 27, 42; xxiii. 28 ; John iv. 21; xxi. 22. To these must be added the parallel places from the other Gospels, and the prophecy of John the Baptist, Matt. iii. 10, And now also the axe is laid to the root of the tree, &c. Whom some people call a Jew; they might as well call him a Quaker, or a Muggletonian. The man was not even a proselyte of the gate, but a mere Epicurean philosopher, who, if proper pains had been taken with him, might possibly have become a Sadducee. [This is one of those observations by which Jortin has incurred the charge of flippancy. It was in the self-assumed character of a Jew that Celsus, in the two first books of his "True Word," attempted to throw discredit upon the Gospel, and to persuade his pretended countrymen that nothing would be gained by a change of faith, insomuch as Christianity was merely a modification of Judaism. In the remainder of his work he throws off the mask, and maintains that nothing more is contained in the Gospel than might be collected from the dogmas of the heathen sages. With respect to the point under consideration, he not only does not question the accuracy of any of the facts related by the Evangelists, but endeavours from the them a mixture of obscurity, and needless difficulty; needless if they were forged. Christ foretold the destruction of the city and temple, and the calamities of the Jews, fully and clearly: but being asked when this should be, he gave an answer in a sublime and prophetic style, saying that the sun should be darkened, and the moon should not give her light, and the stars should fall from heaven, &c., which would not be easily understood, if learned and judicious commentators had not cleared it up. This he might possibly do to perplex the unbelieving persecuting Jews, if his discourses should ever fall into their hands, that they might not learn to avoid the impending evil. The believing Jews themselves, notwithstanding this prediction, stood in need of a second admonition, and were divinely warned to fly from Jerusalem. So loth are people to leave their own house and home, even when they see destruction at the door.(6.) Because Christ not only foretold the destruction of Jerusalem, but the continuance of that desolation. Jerusalem, says he, shall be trodden down of the Gentiles till the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Take what interpretation you will, so it facts themselves to impugn the credibility of the narrative. He even acknowledges the Gospels to have been "written by the disciples of Jesus ;" which is in itself a presumption of their genuineness and authenticity: for Celsus lived but little more than a century (A. D. 176) after the period at which the events thus recorded happened, and he had therefore ample means of ascertaining their truth. It is certain, moreover, that the Gospels we now have are precisely the same as those with which Celsus was acquainted; for he quotes from them, and he quotes from no other.— EDIT.] The objections of Trypho are to be found in Justin Martyr; those of Celsus in Origen; those of Porphyry in Holstenius, Vit. Porph. (ch. xi.); and Julian's in his own works and in Cyril. Trypho had perused the Gospels, and says to Justin (Dial. Tr. c. 10): ὑμῶν δὲ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῷ λεγομένῳ Εὐαγγελίῳ παραγγέλματα θαυμαστὰ οὕτως καὶ μεγάλα ἐπίσταμαι εἶναι, ὡς ὑπολαμβάνειν μηδένα δύνασθαι φυλάξαι αὐτά· ἐμοὶ γὰρ ἐμέλησεν ἐντυχεῖν αὐτοῖς. 7 Eus. Dem. Εν. vi. p. 287. Οι γοῦν ̓Απόστολοι καὶ μαθηταὶ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν, καὶ πάντες οἱ ἐξ Ἰουδαίων εἰς αὐτὸν πεπιστευκότες, μακρὰν τῆς Ἰουδαίας γῆς γενόμενοι, καὶ τοῖς λοιποῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐπισπαρέντες, τὸν κατὰ τῶν οἰκούντων τὴν πόλιν ὄλεθρον διαδρᾶκαι τότε ἐδυνήθησαν. [Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. iii. 5) relates that all the faithful of the church of Jerusalem were warned by revelation to quit the city, and cross the Jordan to Pella; and Epiphanius (Pond. et Mens. p. 171) says that they were directed by an angel to depart from the city, that they might not be involved in its approaching destruction. That they did so, see also Joseph. B. J. iv. 8. 2.-Edit.] 8 Luke xxi. 24. be not absurd, and add to it a matter of fact, namely, the state of the Jews ever since, and it must be owned that a considerable length of time is implied.-(7.) Because Christ declared that these evils should befal them for not knowing the time of their visitation, and for rejecting him; whence it followed, that as long as their rebellion and disobedience continued, the sentence against them would not be reversed. If it should be said that Christ, as a wise and sagacious man, might foresee the storm, Εσσεται ἦμαρ, ὅτ' ἄν ποτ' ὀλώλῃ Ἴλιος ipǹ,'—this would be a disingenuous shift to evade a plain truth. Christ would not have acted suitably to his character and usual conduct, and to common prudence, if he had staked his reputation on conjectures; and in the reign of Tiberius there was no appearance of such an event, and much less of the various circumstances attending it, which he foretold. The Romans had no interest to destroy and depopulate a country which was subject to them, and whence they reaped many advantages; and the Jews had not strength to hope for success in a war against them. If it should be said that Christ took his prophecies from Daniel, his just interpretation of Daniel shows him to be the Messiah mentioned by Daniel, since none besides himself at that time had even a tolerable claim to that character. Daniel foretold, that in seventy weeks of years, or four hundred and ninety years, a most holy person should be anointed; that this Messiah should be cut off; that a prince should come with an army, and cause the sacrifices to cease, and plant abominable idols in the holy place, and destroy the city and temple, and make the land utterly desolate, and put an end to the Jewish polity.' But Christ is more explicit and circumstantial than Daniel, and in many respects his prediction was new and altogether his own. Josephus says that the zealots trampled under foot all laws divine and human, and made a jest of their own sacred books, and derided the writings of the prophets :ἐγελᾶτο δὲ τὰ θεῖα, καὶ τοὺς τῶν προφητῶν θεσμοὺς ὥσπερ ἀγυρτικὰς λογοποιίας ἐχλέυαζον ἦν γὰρ δή τις παλαιὸς λόγος ἀνδρῶν, ἔνθα τότε τὴν πόλιν ἁλώσεσθαι, 9 The day will come, when sacred Troy shall fall. 1 Dan. ch. ix. |