:

lation of St. John perhaps excepted. For Clement wrote his epiftle after the death of the Apoftles Paul and Peter. -Secondly in the xxiv-xxvi. and in the 1. chap. p. 39–42, and p. 74, 75, he attempts to prove the refurrection of the dead, and quotes for that purpose many paffages from the Old Teftament, all of which in fact prove nothing. Whence is it then, that he quotes not a fingle one among the great number of far clearer paffages in the New Teftament, particularly in the first Epiftle of St. Paul to the Corin-thians? What could be more decifive to the Corinthians, to whom he wrote, than the determination of the Apostle, who had wrought fo many miracles among them, and of whofe divine infpiration they had no doubt?

Having frequently made thefe difficulties the fubject of my confideration, it appears to me that much may

be faid to leffen, if not entirely to remove, their force.-As to the first, I anfwer, That Clement very rarely makes his quotations from the Old Teftament by name; but almoft conftantly only according to their contents. Nor was it very cuftomary for the ancient writers to quote by name, as may be feen for inftance in the Epiftle to the Hebrews, in which the author quotes generally according to the contents only, or with an indeterminate phrafe, "one in a certain place teftified." Moreover, Clement prefumed that the contents of the New Teftament were already known to the Chriftians at Corinth. But this he could not prefume in refpect of the Old Teftament, which was generally unknown to the heathen converts.-With regard to the fecond difficulty, it appears to me that the immediate object of Clement was not fo much to prove f Chap. i. ii.

the

the truth of this doctrine of Chriftianity, as to fhew its harmony with the doctrine of the Old Teftament. For this reafon he quotes, however illapplied, paffages of the Old Testament exclufively, and in fuch profufion. The doctrine itself he prefuppofes to be true, and to be believed. The beginning of the 47th chap.-" Receive the Epiftle of the Holy Paul; what has he there written to you?" rendered all further quotations of particular paffages of this epiftle unneceffary.

3. Hermas.

WE have an ancient writing under the title of Paftor, or Shepherd, which bears the name of Hermas, whom St. Paul, Romans xvi. 14. enumerates among thofe to whom he particularly fends falutation. It contains, as we have it at prefent, three books. In the firft, which has the title Vifiones,

It stands in Cotelerius, vol. i. p. 75-126.

are

1

are four visions. The Church of God appears to him four times, in the form of an old woman, gives him various doctrines, (which are very commonplace, and not always juft) and particularly informs him, that the Chriftians had much tribulation to expect, but that they might overcome it by patience and prayer. After fome time appears a venerable man, in the habit of a fhepherd, and dictates to him as he writes, twelve commands, which contain a kind of catechetical inftruction in morality, very incomplete, and in part bad and unchriftian. These are the contents of the fecond book, which is therefore called Mandata.-Again, this venerable man dictates to him certain types, comparisons, and narratives, in which are veiled certain moral truths, and the future fortunes of the church. These compofe the third book, which on this account is entitled Similitudines. The work was written origi

nally

nally in Greek.

But we have now

only an ancient Latin verfion", except a few fragments preserved in the Greek fathers, and which may be seen in Cotelerius.

If we were to form our judgment of the author from the book itself, we fhould fuppofe it to have been written by one who was a Jew by birth, and who lived in the first century. The rigid adherence to fafts, and high idea of their meritorioufnefs; the figurative and allegorical kind of representation; the quoting of the book Heldam et Modal'; and the Hebrew name given

h Whoever defires to be further informed concerning the opinions of learned men on these writings of the apoftolical period, may confult the firft vol. of Le Nourry Apparatus ad bibliothecam maximam Patrum et antiquorum Scriptorum eccles. Lugduni edit. in which every thing that belongs to the subject is treated with great accuracy and copiousness. The account of the Paftor is to be found, p. 47-70.

i See Similitud. V.

* See the Vifiones and the Similitudines.

1 Vifio. ii. §. 3. p. 77.-"The Lord is nigh to them

that