other things, we cannot conceive our Saviour to carry compliance with Jewish notions so far as to mislead a great number of his Disciples.

The Mosaic Dispensation receives great support from the 16th Chapters of Grotius's first Book De veritate religionis Christianæ ;-the Chapter is entitled, Testimonium extraneorum, and the matter of it seems well digested. The passages referred to may exercise the diligence of the Student, if he endeavours to form a judgment concerning the weight, which ought to be allowed to each. To co-operate with him in such a work would carry us out too far. The authorities are now reduced into a small compass, and the work is in every one's hands.

10. 3. We now take our third Station.

After considering what our Article affirms with regard to the Books of the Old Testament, we come to what it lays down respecting those Books, which have made pretensions to be ranked in that number; those, which we commonly call collectively the Apocrypha.

As our proof of what is affirmed will be chiefly historical, we shall not need to give much previous history. If a person, in our present situation, were well versed in history, he would naturally take a view of all the sorts of writings, which had been thought divine by some, and not by others; or which had been composed with a view of being admitted into the sacred Canon, or read in religious assemblies,

Christ ought to have applied Prophecies to himself; but only how he did apply them. If he considered the sacred Books as authentic, that is enough for our argument.

• Grotius de veritate, Lib. i, cap. 16.

Could any thing be formed out of the ancients, Diodorus Siculus, &c. in defence of the Old Testament and the Mosaic Dispensation, similar to Lardner's Heathen Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion?

assemblies, but had failed of success. Now this might in a great measure be done by recollecting what has been mentioned in our first Book; both as to the several kinds of writings, which come under this description, and as to the means of distinguishing between them, and such as ought to be deemed canonical.

There were nine sorts of writings mentioned: on the present occasion, the sixth sort would be particularly recollected, those composed by weak and credulous men: also the seventh sort, called heretical.-The idea would also recur, that writings may be useful in some respects, though some foolish or hurtful things have crept into them; that some writings have acquired respect by bearing respectable names; and that some anonymous writings have got to be read with great veneration, or even in religious assemblies, by a successful imitation of some writers already deemed in a manner sacred.

But, though any one should take this review of writings already described, and in some degree, or by some persons held sacred; yet, in the first Book, we were attending solely to the canon of the New Testament;-our view is now to be confined to such as have pretended to be parts of the Old Testament, or Jewish Scriptures, before the time of Christ; and such as we exclude from the canon, although we give them a recommendation as moral writings.

All the Books enumerated in our apocryphal catalogue, are mentioned as canonical in the 4th Session of the Council of Trent, (though they never before were received by any formal act into a Church, on the same footing,) except the third and fourth Books of Esdras and the prayer of Manasses, which are not mentioned at all. I do not see, that

a Book i. Chap. xii. Sect. 4, 5.

the

the Romanists have any thing in the way of our Apocrypha; though they publish these two or, three Books after the Apocalypse, in the Latin translation, which they authenticate; alledging, that they would not have them perish, as they have been quoted by some Holy Fathers, and are found in some Latin Bibles, printed and manuscript.

Jerom translated some of these Books, Tobit and Judith, but, as he says, at the desire of Friends" ;— and he takes care to prevent any one from concluding, that he thought them authentic.

Grotius has thought fit to write a comment upon them, but he calls some of them, the Book of Wisdom in particular, I think, interpolated by Christians. As his Socinian principles led him to lay this charge, and he seems to fail in the proof of it, he incidentally proves, that the Books contain some things, by which orthodox Christians are supported in their opinions.-These I take to be descriptions of the Aoyos, and the Spirit of God, which are used to shew, that St. John spoke of the Word, and others of the Spirit personally, according to notions already established amongst the Jews".

As the Papists receive our apocryphal Books, those, who have desired to separate the farthest from them, have been most averse to these Books: as Puritans, Presbyterians, &c; accordingly, they have been a subject of dispute' amongst Protestants, whenever

See Lard. vol. V, p. 21. Jerom's Preface to Tobit. The friends were, Chromatius and Eliodorus.

• See Grotius's opening on Wisdom.

See Allix's Judgment of the Jews, Chap. 5.

For Son, see Wisd. x. 5.- Ecclus. xlviii. 10.- For Spirit, see Jud. xvi. 14.-Wisd. i. 7.-vii. 7.-ix. 17.--xii. 1.Ecclus, xxxix. 6.--xlviii. 12.—For Word, see Wisd. xvi. 26. Bar. v. 5.

f See Neal's Hist. Puritans, Index; and Candid Disquisitions, Appendix, Sect. 6.

whenever any change in our English forms of worship has been debated.

b

11. For the reason already given, we say no more of History at present.-Explanation will turn chiefly on the word Apocryphal. It has had several meanings given it; one thus ;-Apocryphal writings are writings ἀπὸ τῆς κρυπτῆς, removed from the place, receptacle, chest, where the sacred books were commonly kept: but apocryphal is generally considered as coming from άTOKρUTTW, to conceal, or hide. Yet this derivation does not reduce the senses to one; for a book may be hidden or secret in different respects. Perhaps the most ancient idea of an apocryphal or secret book is, that it was concealed from the People; according to this, books were apocryphal, when they were thought such as ought not to be read: which agrees with the ancient division of Books, into canonical, and such as were to be read, and such as were apocryphal :-the foolish and hurtful writings would be amongst the apocryphal, in this sense and it has been thought, that some books were kept secret from the People, though received by the Church. (See Lardner, vol. III, p. 529, bottom).-Our Apocalypse and Canticles are in England very little read to the People. But a book may be hidden or secret, in respect of the name of its author;-though this is not so likely to occasion any difficulty in the case of anonymous books, as when a name is affixed to it, which there is reason to think is not really the name of its author: consequently, secret or apocryphal, in this way, will be nearly equivalent to spurious; and will soon come by custom to be fully equivalent to it. In this sense, apocryphal is sometimes

a

Broughton's Dict.

See Notes on Cyril's 4th Catechesis, Edit, Mill. Oxon.

times used. Lastly, a Book may be secret or hidden, in respect of that authority, to which it pretends; this sense is associated with the preceding, as authority is with author. In this sense, apocryphal is used by Augustin, who thinks it worth while to reject one of the senses just now mentioned;viz. that Apocryphal Books were such, as were purposely kept secret from the People. His idea of apocryphal books is, whose origin was hidden to the Fathers; wanting testimonials; by authors unknown; of character suspected.-This sense is nearest our's already given.

e

We may close this explanation by observing, that the words in our present paragraph, "the Church," do not seem to mean our Church, the Church of England, but the Christian Church at large.— However, it may be proper to observe, that our Church does not read the whole of the Apocrypha in religious assemblies. assemblies. We do not read either Book of Esdras, nor either Book of Maccabees; nor Hester, nor the Song of the three Children, nor the Prayer of Manasses. Our Article, or Jerom quoted in it, means, probably, that Christians do not object to this body or collection of writings, so as not to read them publicly not that every Christian Church reads them all. Even the Romanists seem to omit some.

12. We come next to our Proof.

There seem to be but two propositions in the part of the Article now before us, which require proof. The Books here opposed to those called canonical, ought not to be applied "to establish any Doctrine."

• See Lard. vol. II. p. 363.

Book i. Chap. xii. Sect 11.

The

d Lard. vol. III. p. 529, 530.

f Lardner, vol. VI. p. 8, end of Sect. 3, gives as good an account as I have seen, of canonical, ecclesiastical, and apocryphal. It is very short.

VOL. II.

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