Theffalonicenfes. Si potes in Afiam tendere; habes Ephefum. Si autem Italiæ adjaces; habes Romam; unde nobis quoque auctoritas præfto eft."

SECT. III.

Evidences from Works of the Second Century, which are now toft.

THE enemies of our religion complain often and loudly of the lofs of thofe writings againft Chriftianity, which were compofed by its ancient opponents; and fome of them accuse the Chriftians, in language by no means doubtful, of having been the cause of the deftruction of thefe works. But they do not take into confideration, that of the writings alfo of the ancient friends and defenders of Christianity many more have been loft than have been preserved. And that, together with these writings, many important evidences for the Authenticity of the

New

New Teftament have alfo perifhed. We have already" regretted this lofs when we treated above of the history of the first century. In the fecond this deficiency is still greater and more to be lamented.

1. Concerning Dionyfius, Bishop of Corinth, Eufebius gives us the follow ing information":-He wrote feven epiftles to different Christian communities, and another to a Chriftian matron: in the epiftle to the community at Athens he exhorted men to believe and to act according to the Gofpel in the epiftle to the Nicomedians he defended the true canon (or, as others tranflate it, the rule of truth, τῳ της αληθείας παρίςαται κανονι), in oppofition to the herefy of Marcion: in the epiftle to the church at Amaftris he had inferted expositions of the Di

■ Book ii. chap. 1.

w Eufebii. Hift. Eccl. Lib. IV. cap. xxiii. p. 184 -187. edit. Reading.

vine Scriptures. All these epiftles are now loft; and with them much important information, and many weighty evidences for the Authenticity of the New Teftament.

2. In the work of Tatian, which still remains*, we find (on account of the particular purpofe for which it was compofed), few allufions to the apoftolical writings.-But of thefe he had treated so much the more amply in his Harmony, or Δια Τεσσάρων, a Gofpel compofed from the four Gospels taken together. This work was well known to Eufebius'; and although the author might have inferted his heretical principles even here, yet the lofs of this work is greatly to be lamented as well for many other causes as on account of its great antiquity.-Irenæus, and Clement of Alexandria, allude to

x See above, P. 108.

y Hift. Ecclef. Lib. IV, cap, xxix. p. 193, 194. See Valefius in Eufebium, 1. cit.

* Lib. III. cap. xxiii. §. viii. p. 222. ed. Massueti. ↳ Stromat, Lib. III. p. 547. Potteri.

other

other writings of this author, in which he attempted to prove fome of his heterodox tenets by quotations from the firft Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians.

3. Hegefippus, a convert from Judaifm, compofed five books of Ecclefiaftical Hiftory, in which he gave an account of the apoftolical preaching. But of this work we have nothing remaining except a few fragments preferved by Eufebius and Photius. Although the hiftorian might not have entirely laid afide that credulity and inclination for the fabulous, which was peculiar to the Jews of his time (and that this was the cafe is plain from the extracts in the above-mentioned authors), nevertheless, the lofs of his work is much to be lamented; because there undoubtedly exifted in it much material information for a history of the fcriptural writings, which he muft

• Eufebius Hift. Ecclef. Lib. IV. cap. viii. p. 150.

have collected in his intercourfe with many confiderable teachers of Chrif tianity. However, we difcover from the fragments, that he was very well acquainted with the Scriptures of the New Teftament. For he quotes them often, although not by name; and his manner of writing is invariably in that peculiarity of ftyle belonging to these books.".

4. Melito, Bishop of Sardis, has rendered himself remarkable in ecclefiaftical history, particularly by his examination of the Sacred Books of the Old Teftament. He compofed various writings, of which we fcarcely know more than the titles, as they are given to us in Eufebius. His books,

See Lardner's Credibility.

• He travelled into Palestine, on purpose to obtain information on the true Canon of the Old Teftament. Eufebius has preserved his catalogue, H. E. Lib. IV. cap. xxvi. p. 190, 191.

f Hift. Ecclef. Lib. IV. cap. xxvi. p. 188, 189.

N

On