Confitus.

&c. p.342.

Nor (5) Could this Difpute be much later For after it Peter went to Rome, and executed that Judgment on Simon Magus: After it the Apoftles, all but Paul, celebrated the famous fecond Council of Ferufalem; nay, they did ftill later after this celebrate the third Council there, when Paul was prefent alfo : After this Peter went to Rome, and wrote probably both his Epiftles thence, and yet was Martyr'd about A. D. 67. So that this Difputation could not happen much later than this Year.

Corollary. Since the fecond Council of JeLVI. c.12. rufalem now mention'd plainly net upon &c. occafion of the great fpreading of the antient Herefies, particularly that of Simon Magus, and his first followers, the very end of this Year A. D. 63. or rather the beginning of the next A. D. 64. feems to be the time of its celebration. And indeed all the Charaters of Chronology do fuit this time, and this time only, and make it still most highly probable, if not next to certain; as will now appear. An

1

XIV. The Apoftles, all that were then alive, excepting Paul, met together at Jerufalem, with fames the Lord's Brother, and feveral of their Companions, about the beginning of A. D. 64. and there held a famous Affembly for the folemn Declaration or Expofition of the Chriftian Faith and Practice, in oppofition to the antient Herefies then

pre

Apoftolical Conftitutions

2 Efdr. 14

24.

; and this may be called the Second Council of the Apostles there. This Council not meeting till about the time of Luke's writing his Acts of the Apoftles, if not rather before it, we cannot expect an account of it there, as we have of the firft. But the Conftitutions give us a full and di- Ubi fuprà. ftinct, a certain and authentick account of the Acts both of the firft and of this fecond Council; and fuch an one of this fecond as fhews it to have been the most important Council that ever was held in the Chriftian Church. Since therein was fet down in Writing, or engrav'd in Box Tables, the Catholick Doctrine, or main Account of the Laws, Doctrines, and Rules of the Gofpel, formerly deliver'd to the Apoftles in Mount Sion after our Lord's Refurrection, and now written down or engrav'd by the hand of Clement himself, as is moft probable; (who appears to have been the Apoftles Scribe or Amanuenfis upon this great occafion,) at leaft fent by him principally to the Apoftolical Churches, as the grand Syftem of the Chriftian Religion; the main Rule both of Faith and Practice; to be preferv'd by the Bishops in their Archives, and transmitted as a facred Depofitum to all future Generations. Hear the Apoftles account of this Council from their own words in the Confitutions : Αὐτοὶ ἢ ἐν ἱκοναῖς ἡμέραις ἐν Γλύμοις ἐπεμείναμ, ἅμα συζητώντες πρὸς τὸ

I

Ubi fupra.

2

κοινωφελὲς εἰς διόρθωσιν. με 5 χρόνον ἱκα μὲν ὅπισε κεψάμλνοι τις αδελφές, και τηρίξαντες αυτές τω λόγῳ ἢ ἀσεβείας, και εδγνησάμενοι φεύγειν αυτές τοῖς ἐπ' ὀνόματι χρισε ή μωσέως πολεμέα χει τῷ καὶ μωσε, καὶ ἐν δερᾷ οροβάτων τ λύκων κατα κρύπτεσιν· ὗτοι γάρ εἰσι ψευδοχριστοι, και ψάυδοπο φῆς, καὶ ψοδαπόςολοι, πλάνοι, οι φθορείς, αλα πέκων μερίδες, και χαμαιζήλων αμπελώνων ἀφανι στις δὲ ἐς ψυθήσει ἡ τῶν πολλῶν ἀγάπη· ὁ δὲ ὑπομείνας εἰς τέλος

1

ωθήσει τρὶ ὧν ἀσφαλιζόμΘ. ἡμᾶς ὁ κύρια πήγε λεν, ἐλούσιν, λέγων, πρὸς ὑμᾶς ἄνθρωποι ἐν ἐ;δύμασι προβάτων, ἔσωθεν δέ εἰσι λύκοι άρπαγες, Στὸ τὴν καρπῶν ἀντής ολιγνώσεσθε αυτές, προσ χετε ἀπ ̓ αὐτῶν· ἀναζήσον 3 η ψευδόχρισι, ψευδοροφής, και πλενήσεσι πολλές, δι' ες ἡμεῖς τοῦ ἅμα πάντες, ἐκτὸς παύλε, ἰακωβός τε ὁ τε κυρίς ἀδελφὸς, καὶ ἱεροσολύμων Ἐπίσκοπο @ Επι τὸ αὐτὸ λυόμθυοι έγραψαμιν ὑμῖν καθολι κω τύτω διδασκονίαν, εἰς όλιςριγμόν μ * καθόλες Επισκοπώ πεπιςσυμβίων. I have fet this important Paffage down intirely, not as it is interpolated in our ordinary Copies, but as it was read by Varadatus in the fifth Century, i. e. but one Century after its original Publication, of which matter more will be spoken prefently. Then follows a moft eminent Branch of the fame Catholick Doctrine, or a kind of fhort Rule of Faith and Practice; which it was the particular bufinefs of this Council to explain in oppofition to the old Hereticks. After which

thisApoftolical Account goes on thus:Ki καὶ πόλιν πανταχε εἰς ὅλῳ ἢ οἰκεμγύω το κόσμε C.18 1.349 πεποιήκαμθυ, καταλιπόντες ὑμῖν τοῖς Ἐπισκέπτις καὶ λοιποῖς ἱερεῦσι τίύδε ἳ καθολικίω διδασκαλίαν, αξίως καὶ δικαίως, εἰς μνημόσιωον ἔπιςηριγμα τοῖς πεπιςοικόσι Θεῷ· διαπεμψάμινοι δια το συλλει τεργε ἡμής κλήμα, το πισοτάτε καὶ ὁμοψύχει τέκνε ἡμῖν ἐν κυρίῳ, ἅμα καὶ βαρνάβα, καὶ τιμοθέῳ, το ποθεινοτάτῳ ὑῷ, καὶ μάρκῳ τῳ γνησίῳ. What can be more folemn or authentick than this account? With the very Names of thofe four Companions of the Apostles with whom it was intrufted, to be communicated to the feveral Churches: Nay, as it immediately follows, with the addition of Five more Names of the like Companions of the Apostles, abfent it feems at this time, but prefent at the fourth Council at Jerufalem which made fome addition to this Catholick Doctrine, Titus, Luke, Jafon, Lucius, and Sofipater ; which Council we fhall fee prefently was held foon after the deftruction of Jerufalem. Now for our farther fecurity as to the genuineness of this fecond Council, and of its Acts before us, I fhall here fhew that those here nam'd as prefent might well be fo; and thofe Six here nam'd as abfent, were or well might be abfent at the fame time: So far I mean as our other authentick accounts of those times can give us any Information: And then I fhall fhew that we have a full and exprefs Teftimony for the faire

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Annal.

Mills Pro

fame Council in the Fifth Century, and for thefe Acts of it alfo, as then own'd for genuine from thefe Conftitutions; nay, for that genuine reading of the account which I have above given. As to the first part of this proof Paul is here fuppos'd to be abfent, as well as Titus; and that moft juftly, fince it appears that they two were then PreachTit. 1.5. ing the Gospel in Crete, and that Titus was foon after left in Crete, while Paul went Paulin. & thence into Afia; where before the Year was legom. expir'd we find him at Colofs, and foon after in Macedonia at Philippi, writing his Epiftle to Titus. So that two of the Six abfent were really fo, by other collateral evidence. Luke is another abfent Perfon. Accordingly about, or foon after this very time we find him at Alexandria in Egypt, writing his Mills Pro- Acts of the Apofiles. Of Jafon, Lucius, and Sofipater, who are among the abfent, we have at this time no other intimations that I know of; and fo can have no reason to difpute about them. As to the Apoftles, and James the Bishop, with Clement, Barnabas, Timothy, and Mark, who are fuppos'd prefent, we have no reafon to imagin any of them to be otherwife, from any good evidence whatsoever. Peter had juft before been at Cæfarea, and at Rome, on purpose to oppofe the Ring-leader of thofe very Herefies which this Council was defign'd againft; and whofe account of them, and of those

legom.