A

NEW AND FULL

METHOD

OF SETTLING

THE CANONICAL AUTHORITY

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

TO WHICH IS SUBJOINED

A VINDICATION OF THE FORMER PART

OF

ST. MATTHEW'S GOSPEL,

FROM MR. WHISTON'S CHARGE OF DISLOCATIONS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

BY

THE REV. JEREMIAH JONES.

VOL. III.

OXFORD,

AT THE CLARENDON PRESS.

MDCCCXXVII.

Clar. Press.

1b.113.

A

METHOD

FOR

SETTLING THE CANON

OF THE

NEW TESTAMENT.

PART IV.

A general dissertation, or proof, concerning the canonical authority of the four Gospels.

BEFORE I enter upon the proof of the canonical authority of each of the Gospels in particular, it will be very serviceable to my design to observe and shew, that the primitive Christians have expressly acknowledged only four Gospels; and those four Gospels which we now receive under the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, to be genuine and canonical. I shall produce the several testimonies which I have observed, according to the order of time in which the writers lived; and among these it will not be amiss to place,

1. St. JoHN.

I. The testimony of St. John the apostle; concerning whom we are told by Eusebius a, "That when the three Gospels (of σε Matthew, Mark, and Luke) were published and known to every body, St. John at length saw them, approved them, 66 and confirmed the truth of them; but [owned] that they

66

* Τῶν προαναγραφέντων τριῶν εἰς πάντας ἤδη καὶ εἰς αὐτὸν διαδεδομένων, ἀποδέξασθαι μὲν φασὶν ἀλήθειαν αὐτοῖς ἐπιμαρτυρήσαν τα· μόνην δὲ ἄρα λείπεσθαι τῇ γραφῇ τὴν περὶ τῶν ἐν πρώτοις καὶ κατ ̓ ἀρχὴν τοῦ κη ρύγματος ὑπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πεπραγμένων διήγησιν--Παρακληθέντα δὴ οὖν τούτων ἕνεκα

VOL. III.

φησὶ τὸν ἀπόστολον Ιωάννην, τὸν ὑπὸ τῶν προτέρων εὐαγγελιστῶν παρασιωπηθέντα χρόνον, καὶ τὰ κατὰ τοῦτον πεπραγμένα τῷ Σωτῆρι (ταῦτα δ ̓ ἦν τὰ πρὸ τῆς τοῦ Βαπτιστοῦ καθείρξεως) τῷ κατ' αὐτὸν εὐαγγελίῳ παραδοῦναι. Hist. Εccl. 1. 3.

C. 24.

B