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Note, The Author has bound up a few of these five laft together.

XII. Animadverfions on a Pamphlet inituled, The New Arian Reprov'd. Octavo. XIII. Primitive Chriftianity reviv'd in four Volumes, Octavo.

Latin.

I. Prale&tiones Aftronomica. Octavo. II. Elementa Euclidis per Tacquetium denuo edita, & aucta. Octavo.

III. Algebra Elementa per Anonymum, publici juris facta. Octavo.

IV. Prælectiones Phyfico - Mathematica. Octavo.

A N

ESSAY

ON THE

Apoftolical Constitutions.

INTRODUCTION.

INCE there not only is at prefent, but, fo far as appears, has been in all the paft Ages of Christianity a most wonderful and remarkable Book, or Collection extant, ftil'd, the Apoftolical Doctrine and Conftitutions, and fo pretending to be written in the Name of the Holy Apoftles of our Lord Chrift, or by Authority derived from them; nay, pretending to contain the Original moft facred Laws, Doctrines, and Rules of the Gospel, derived by the Apoftles from our blessed Saviour, and by him originally from the fupreme God the Father himself; and fince

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withal

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withal this Book, or Collection, appears in the main, upon perufal, to be highly wor thy of the Apostles, exactly agreeable to their undoubted Writings, and compos'd in fo pious, primitive, and ferious a manner as inclines one at the first fight to have no fufpicion of its being other than genuine: Since alfo we foon find, upon farther enquiry, that, abating a few Ages laft paft, principally in these Western Parts of Chriftendom, which were fo long under the Slavery of the Antichriftian See of Rome, the Body of the Chriftian Church has all along own'd it for Genuine and Apoftolical; it cannot fure but deferve our most ferious ftudy and enquiry, whether this Book be really what it pretends to be. Ef pecially this deferves our enquiry, who are peculiarly Chriftians, not only regarding the Will of God the Father, reveal'd to us by the Law of Nature, confirm'd by the Law of Mofes, and compleated by our Lord Jefus while he was on Earth, and fo wholly acted in the Name of the fupreme God his Father, but owning alfo the diftinct Authority of Chrift himself, as advanc'd to a peculiar Kingdom after his Refurrection, and as then become our proper Governor, our Lord, and God, and Judge, till the Confummation of all things. Since, as will appear prefently, thefe Conftitutions do pretend to be no other than thofe very

Do

Doctrines, Precepts, Rules, and Devotions, which our Lord Chrift has peculiarly eftablifhed and enacted for his Church; and to be the facred Digeft of thofe Laws, by which all its Members are to be govern'd as fuch at present, and for which, as well as for the other, he will call them to a ftrict Account at the Day of Judgment. And a confidering Perfon would stand amaz'd to fee that among the numerous Authors of smaller account, not only Chriftian, or Jewish, but Heathen alfo, whofe Writings have been fo nicely fcann'd by the modern Criticks, thefe Eight Books of Apoftolical Doctrine and Conftitutions should be fo very flightly pafs'd over by them; nay, commonly voted either in general Spurious, or in the grofs Interpolated, at random, and almoft without any ferious examination at all. Nay, and the wonder is increas'd as to the Learned of late, efpecially thofe of our Church, fince they have with fo great pains and fuccefs vindicated the laft additional Chapter in the present Collection, containing the original Ecclefiaftical or Apoftolical Canons, and have fhew'd that, at the loweft, they must be the most antient Canons that were observ'd in the Second and Third Centuries of Chriftianity, without fo much as attempting the like careful examination of the former parts of the fame Collection; which yet are of B 2 greater

greater importance, have many obvious Marks of earlier Antiquity, and are plainly the Foundation of thofe Ecclefiaftical or Apoftolical Canons themfelves, nay, are exprefly cited by them, and afford them the greatest part of their materials, as will appear upon examination. It is therefore for certain high time for all real and fincere Chriftians, who hope for the Promises and fear the Threatnings of their Lord and Saviour, with Humility, Reverence, and an holy Fear, to fet about a Work of fo much confequence to themfelves, and to the Church of Chrift; to lay afide all those modern Opinions and Fancies which may any way byafs their Judgments; and to -ufe their utmost care, caution, and impartiality, together with ferious Prayers for the Divine Bleffing and Affiftance in the enquiry, and from a perfectly honeft and upright mind to examin whether this Book, when purg'd from a few Corruptions of later date, from which neither thefe, nor the other infpired Books of the New Teftament are intirely clear, be not. really deriv'd from our bleffed Lord himself by the Body of his Holy Apoftles; nay, whether they are not in their own Nature prior to, and of greater Authority than the occafional Writings of fingle Apoftles or Evangelifts: I mean in the very fame manner as the Pentateuch, or Syftem, of the Mofa

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