miraculous powers to his Apoftles."-As early as the time of Eufebius this writer was fo little known, that men were even ignorant of what place he was Bishop. And fcholars of the prefent day, after having examined all the documents of antiquity, remain still uncertain whether we poffefs any writings which can be fafely attributed to him. We do not even know whether he lived in Italy or in Arabia; whether he was a divine or a ftatefman 2.

8. Ammonius.

Ammonius (whom Eufebius and Jerom fuppofe to have been the cele

* Ιππολύτος, ἕτερας-προεςως εκκλησίας» Hift. Eccl. Lib. VI. cap. xx. p. 284.

z See Mill's Prolegomena in N. T. Num. 655. et Fabricius Præfat. in Hippol.

2 Some believe, that he was Bishop of Porto, in Italy; others, of Portus Romanus, in Arabia Felix. See Fabricius 1. cit.-Heumann afferts, that he was not a spiritual, but a temporal

ΑΕ

brated

brated Alexandrian philofopher Ammonius Saccas), compofed a Harmony of the Four Gofpels, in which he had. ufed the Gospel of St. Matthew as a foundation. That which we poffefs at prefent under his name is, if not entirely forged, at leaft very much mutilated c. I therefore reckon this work among the loft writings of antiquity; and would proceed directly to the catalogues of Origen, but have yet to remark that

4. Julius Africanus,

WHO flourished in the beginning of this century, has afforded an evidence for the authenticity of the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke, in the epiftle to Ariftides, in which he endea

Eufebius Hift. Eccl. Lib. VI. c. 19. p. 282. Ejufd. epiftola ad Carplanum, which is prefixed to his Harmony. Hieronymus, De Vir. Illustr. cap. Iv. • See Wetstein Prolegom. ad N. T. Tom. I. P. 65. fequ. Comp. Lardner's Credibility, Vol. II. p. 413, and the following pages.

vours to remove the apparent contradiction in the genealogy of Christ as delivered by these Evangelifts.

5. Origen.

1

ORIGEN, the moft learned and laborious of all the fathers, who was in fuch high eftimation even among the heathen philofophers, that they dedicated their writings to him, and tranfinitted them to him for his revifal, has particularly diftinguished himfelf by his labours on the biblical writings. He not only compofed a celebrated critical work on the Old Teftament, but wrote alfo a threefold expofition of the books of the whole Bible; Scholia, or fhort notes;→ Tomes, or extensive commentaries, in which he employed all his learning, critical, facred, and prophane;-and

d See the extract from the above mentioned epiftle in Eufebius Hift. Eccl. Lib. I. cap. vii. p. 21–25.

Eufebius Hift. Eccl. Lib. VI. cap. xix. p. 279.

Tracts,

Tracts, or homilies to the people'. Of thefe only a small portion is come down to us, and that for the moft part in Latin tranflations made by Jerom or Rufinus; the rest have been deftroyed by the ravages of time.

He is the first who has given us a perfect catalogue of those books, which Chriftians unanimoufly, or at least the major part of them have confidered as genuine writings of the Apoftles, and as works of divine inspiration.-In his thirteenth Homily, upon Genefis, he difcovers in the fervants of Ifaac, who dug cifterns, a type of the fcriptural writers. "His fervants," fays he, "are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John: His fervants alfo are Peter, James, Jude, and the Apostle Paul: who all

.

f Hieronymus, Prolegom. in Ezechiel,-He fuperintended also a very accurate edition of the whole New Teftament, Hieronymus in Matth. xxiv. 36. Origenes in Joan. 1. Comp. Ernefti De Origene interpr. gr. auct.-in the Opufc. Theol. p. 306, feq.

Operum Tom. II. p. 95. edit. De la Rue.

dig the wells of the New Teftament." -In the fame manner he allegorifes the hiftory of Jofhua, in his feventh Homily on this book1. "When our Lord Jefus Chrift came, of whom that fon of Nave was a type, he fent forth the priests, his Apoftles, with trumpets, from which they founded the heavenly doctrine. Matthew founds firft with his priestly trumpet in his Gospel. Mark alfo, and Luke and John founded each his own trumpet. In like manner Peter founds aloud with the two trumpets of his Epiftles; as does James alfo and Jude. John founds again with his trumpet, in his Epiftles and in the Revelation; and Luke in his Acts of the Apoftles. Laft of all appeared he who faid of himself, 'and laft of all God appointed me an Apoftle,' and thundered with the trumpets

h Concerning this pernicious and abfurd mode of interpretation, fee above, p. 97.

i Oper. Tom. II. p. 412.

of