insomuch, that when Hilkiah found a copy of the law in some part of the temple, whilst it was repairing, Josiah was much astonished, as if it was uncommon 5: but that might be, because it was the very copy which Moses himself had wrote, and ordered to be put up in the side of the ark", The Hebrew text, verbatim, is thus; Hilkiah found a book of the law in or by the hand of Moses. However that was, it sufficiently appears that copies of the Law were in many hands a little before and in the captivity, and also copies of the Prophets. Daniel cites both the Law, and the Prophecy of Jeremiah. And long before Ezra came to Jerusalem, the people are said to make their offerings at the rebuilding of the temple upon their return, and the priests to execute their offices in their courses, as it is written in the Book of Moses', which must therefore have been in their hands. So that Ezra cannot be said properly to restore the books of the Old Testament, much less to compose them anew, as if they had been all burnt by the Chaldeans with the temple; which, besides what hath been just now mentioned, we cannot conceive the divine Providence would have permitted, since they were at first wrote for the preserving the word and will of God in the church. Further, notwithstanding the great impiety of that age, yet there must have been many copies of the Law among the people of Israel, who were enjoined such a constant daily studying of, and meditating therein", and it is not conceivable that all of them should fail of their duty. More i 2 Chron. 8 2 Kings xxii. h Deut. xxxi. 24, 25, 26. xxxiv. 14. k Dan. ix. 2, 11, 13. And what Josephus makes Cyrus to own, that he had seen or read the prophecy of Isaiah (chap. xliv. 28.) concerning himself, that he should rebuild Jerusalem, (Joseph. Antiq. b. xi. c. 1.) seems very probable from Ezra i. 2. The Lord hath charged me, &c. Ezra vi. 18. m Deut. vi. 7. over the priests, who were very numerous, and were to be teachers and interpreters of the Law, must, at least, have each of them a copy for that purpose. And it cannot be conceived, that, among so great numbers of the divine books throughout all the land, none of them should be preserved, how negligent soever the late government and the generality of the people had been concerning them. But Ezra, being an inspired prophet, set forth a correct edition, and settled the canon (or true catalogue) thereof, as they were received in his time, with the assistance of others, that were inspired too. He also might add what appeared necessary for the explaining and completing some of them", as in the last chapter of Deuteronomy, concerning the death and burial of Moses, and the succession of Joshua, and several smaller passages; but then it was with the assistance of the same spirit by which the books were at first written". It is also plain, that the Hebrew Bible, which is now extant, hath remained uncorrupted, by the known care and strictness of the Jews in writing it exactly true; and that so nicely, as to number not the words only, but even the letters of every verse thereof; and also by their general notion of the danger of corrupting it wilfully, as believing that would be a worse crime than to worship the golden calf, or sacrifice their children, or kill the prophets nor did Christ or his Apostles accuse the Jews of any such corruption, (as they did of many m Dean Prideaux accounts for the disputed passages in the Chronicles and Nehemiah in his Old and New Testament Connected, part i. book v. Anno 446. and book viii. Anno 291; where also concerning Simon the Just; compare Cornelus a Lapide apud Pol. Syn. Critic. in Nehemiah xii. Î1. n Gerard. Loc. Com. Exegesis de Script. c. 6. Hottinger. Thesaurus, lib. i. c. 2. quest. iv. et lib. i. c. 3. §. 4. Lightfoot of the Fall of Jerusalem, §. 11. Du Pin on the Canon of Script. book i. ch. 4. §. 4. other crimes, and some of a lower degree.) Nei-. As for the New Testament, we have more reason to rely upon the truth of what is therein contained, than on any other kind of history whatsoever; and that both in respect of the books themselves, and the authors of them. The books have been owned and acknowledged in all ages, from the time they were first written, to be the writings of those whose names they bear; and they make up the canon (or catalogue of books) of the New Testament, and were owned as such by the primitive church. As for the four Gospels, one of them was written, and the rest confirmed, by St. John, as Eusebius assures us in his history?; who, although he wrote above two hundred years after the apostolical age, yet his accounts were taken from former writers. These books are also quoted by those who lived near the times of the writers; particularly, Irenæus cites by name (and he could not be mistaken, for he was instructed by Polycarp, a disciple of St. John) the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles; (which last he asserts to be written by St. Luke the Evangelist;) the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans, P Book jii. ch. 1. s Iren. lib. iii. c. 14. S the Corinthians, and so on to the end of that to Titus; the First Epistle of St. Peter, and the First Epistle of St. John. A catalogue of the several places out of the aforesaid Father is drawn up by the author cited in the margint, as also out of other ancient Fathers of the church. And the fore-mentioned Irenæus tells us ", that " true knowledge consists in understanding the doctrine of the Apostles, and the ancient state of the church in the whole world, according to the succession of bishops, to whom they consigned the care of the church in every place, which has continued down to our times; and a complete body or treatise of Scripture preserved, without either forgery or falsification, without either addition or subtraction." Here it may be further remarked, that a people now in being, the modern Jews, who hate the Christian religion, do yet retain those books conveyed to them from their ancestors, which, as they relate ancient types and prophecies, give a very great strength to it. The Gospels and most of the Epistles were written before the destruction of Jerusalem, for they mention the temple and nation of the Jews as still in being so that many persons must be then living who both knew the matters of fact to be true, and might be easily informed of the authors, who would have been soon disproved, if their relations had not been true. The matters contained in them are of great moment; as, the avoiding the eternal torments of hell, and obtaining the joys of heaven. And therefore, no doubt, the first Christians were curious that they might not be mistaken; and they had sufficient opportunity of informing themselves in the very age of the Apostles, and the next age to them. Which doubtless they did; because the au t Mr. Richardson on the Canon of the New Testament. u Iren. lib. iv. c. 63. thority of the books of the New Testament depended on this, that it was known they were either written by the Apostles themselves, or by those who were their assistants and companions, or under their direction or approbation. In which we find the first Christians were so well satisfied, as to forsake the religion of their ancestors, and embrace a new one with the hazard of their lives. Further, in Tertullian's time, about one hundred and ninety-two years after the birth of Christ, the very authentic Epistles of the Apostles were still remaining in the several churches to which they were written. Again, this matter was so clear, that even the Jews and Heathens never denied these books to be genuine. V And as for those few of them, which were at first not so universally received as the rest; viz. the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of St. James, the Second Epistle of St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, the Epistle of St. Jude, and the Revelations; it is to be observed, first, that the Christian faith can subsist very well without them, the remaining authority of those that were never questioned; especially the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. Secondly, There is good evidence, from antiquity, that they were all received in the most early times by those to whom they were sent, (who had the best opportunity of satisfying themselves,) and where they were at first published, and in general by the whole Greek church". Thirdly, It is no wonder that these Epistles, being written either to Christians dispersed, (the copies being no otherwise to be published, than by giving them to some, who might communicate them to others, as ▾ Tertull. de Prescript. num. 36. edit. Rigalt. Lutetiæ 1634. w See at large Grot. de Veritate R. Christianæ, lib. iii. c. 1, 2. Dr. Mills's Prolegom. p. 24, &c. Bp. Burnet on the 6th Article;. Dr. Whitby on the several Epistles; Mr. Richardson's Canon of the New Testament vindicated, §. 11. |