primitive or in later times, should have been sayed from destruction. Such books as the "Gospel of Mary," the "Prot-evangelion," the "Gospel of the Infancy," the "Gospel of Nicodemus," "Paul and Thecla," &c. &c. are not only available as means of establishing the superior excellence of the Books of the New Testament, in the composition of which there is the most admirable combination of majesty with simplicity, strikingly in contrast with the puerilities and irrationalities of the others—but they are of great service in augmenting the evidences and confirming the proof of Christianity.1 So far indeed are these books from militating in any degree against the evangelical history, that, on the contrary, they most decidedly corroborate it: for they are written in the names of those, whom our authentic Scriptures state to have been apostles and companions of apostles; and they all suppose the dignity of our Lord's person, and that a power of working miracles, together with a high degree of authority, was conveyed by him to his apostles. It ought also to be recollected that few, if any of these books, were composed before the beginning of the second century. As they were not composed before that time, they might well refer (as most of them certainly do) to the commonly received books of the New Testamet : and therefore, instead of invalidating the credit of those sacred books, they really bear testimony to them. All these books are not properly spurious, that is, ascribed to authors who did not compose them: but, as they were not composed by apostles, nor at first ascribed to them, they may with great propriety be termed apocryphal: for they have in their titles the names of apostles, and they make a specious pretence of delivering a true history of their doctrines, discourses, miracles and travels, though that history is not true and authentic, and was not written by any apostle or apostolic man. Further, we may account for the publication of these apocryphal or pseudepigraphal books, as they were unquestionably owing to the fame of Christ and his apostles, and the great success of their ministry. And in this respect, the case of the apostles of Jesus Christ is not singular: many men of distinguished characters have had discourses made for them, of which they knew nothing, and actions imputed to them which they never performed; and eminent writers have had works ascribed to them of which they were not the authors. Thus, various orations were falsely ascribed to Demosthenes and Lysias; many things were published in the names of Plautus, Virgil, and Horace, which never were composed by them. The Greek and Roman critics distinguished between the genuine and spurious works of those illustrious writers. The same laudable caution and circumspection were exercised by the first Christians, who did not immediately receive every thing that was proposed to them, but admittea nothing as canonical that did not bear the test of being the genuine production of the sacred writer with whose name it was inscribed, or by whom it professed to have been written. On this account it was that the genuineness of the Epistle to the Hebrews, of some of the Catholic Epistles, and of the Apocalypse, was for a short time doubted by some. when the other books of the New Testament were universally acknowledged. Upon the whole, the books which now are, and for a long time past have been termed apocryphal, whether extant entire, or only in fragments, together with the titles of such as are lost, are monuments 1 Eclectic Review, N. S. vol. xv. p. 164. 82

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of the care, skill, and judgment of the first Christians, of their presiding ministers, and their other learned guides and conductors. The books in question afford no valid argument against either the genuineness or the authority of the books of the New Testament, which were generally received as written by the apostles and evangelists; but, on the contrary, they confirm the general accounts given us in the Canonical Scriptures, and thus indirectly establish the truth and divine authority of the Everlasting Gospel.1

1 Lardner's Works, vol. v. pp. 412–419. 8vo. ; or vol. iii. pp. 121–134. 4to

THE END OF VOLUME I.