A TABLE, AND A SUMMARY OF THE CHAPTERS.

V. No writer

characters belonging to them. III. Their division into the Old and New Testament. IV. No Prophet after Malachi in the one. after S. John in the other. VI. These two Testaments delivered to the Church. VII. By whose public voice in all ages the number and the names of all particular books contained in them are to be known. VIII. But their essential or intrinsical authority they have from God alone. IX. All Churches at accord for the books of the New Testament. X. Not so, since the late canon made by a few men at the Council of Trent, for those of the Old Testament, whereunto they have added six entire books, besides some other pieces. XI., XII., XIII. Which additions the Catholic Church never acknowledged to be truly canonical. XIV. The state of the question, what it is, and what it is not. XV., XVI. The order to be observed, in the chapters following, for the justifying of that ancient Canon of Scripture, which by the Church of England, and by all other Reformed and Christian Churches abroad (except the Roman only) is now received.

CHAPTER II.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ANCIENT JUDAICAL CHURCH.

Page 12.

XVII. The Oracles of God delivered in the time of the Old Testament only to the Jews. XVIII., XIX., XX., XXI. Which, being revised by Ezra after the Captivity of Babylon, they divided into three several classes, and two and twenty books, in number equal to the letters of their alphabet. XXII. The same books, without addition or imminution, were preserved unto the time of our Saviour, and by Him delivered over to the Christians. XXIII. Genebrard's dreaming Videtur about a second

and a third canon of Scripture. XXIV. The testimony of Josephus and Philo. XXV, XXVI., XXVII. The objections of Cardinal Perron reXXVIII. The Jesuit Gretser's vertigo. XXIX. An answer to

futed.

Genebrard, and others.

CHAPTER III.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FIRST CHRISTIAN AND APOSTOLICAL

CHURCH.

Page 22.

XXX. The characters of the books belonging to the Old Testament, given us in the New. XXXI. The testimony of CHRIST Himself. XXXII. And of His Apostles. XXXIII., XXXIV. No apocryphal book alleged or confirmed by them. XXXV. The objections examined and answered. XXXVI. Of the book of Wisdom. XXXVII. Of Ecclesiasticus. XXXVIII. Of Judith. XXXIX. Of Tobit, and Baruch, the Prayer of Manasses, and the books of Esdras. XL. Of the Maccabees. XLI. Of other apocryphal books.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TESTIMONIES OF THE FATHERS, OR ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS, NEXT AFTER THE APOSTLES, IN THE SECOND CENTURY.

Page 31.

XLII. The Canon of Scripture determined.

XLIII. Never altered,

but by a few men in the late Council at Trent. XLIV. The testimony of Clemens Romanus, and the Apostolical Constitutions. XLV. The Apostles' Canons. XLVI. Dionysius the Areopagite. XLVII. Melito. XLVIII. and Justin Martyr.

CHAPTER V.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS IN
THE THIRD CENTURY.

Page 37.

XLIX. Origen. L. Julius Africanus. LI. Tertullian. LII. Clemens

of Alexandria, and S. Cyprian.

CHAPTER VI.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ANCIENT FATHERS IN THE

FOURTH CENTURY.

Page 46.

LIII. Eusebius. LIV. The First Council of Nice. LV., LVI. S. Athanasius. LVII. S. Hilary. LVIII. S. Cyril of Jerusalem. LIX. The Council of Laodicea. LX. Whereof the last canon is explained. LXI. And the objections against it answered. Of Baruch, and the Epistle of Jeremy. LXII. Of the Apocalypse. LXIII. The Roman Code defective. The Code of the Universal Church anciently in use. LXIV. The testimonies of Epiphanius. Objections answered. All books, that be otherwhiles termed divine writings, are not canonical Scripture. LXV. The Testimony of S. Basil. The objections, either not brought out of his true writings, or nothing to the purpose. LXVI. The testimony of S. Greg. Nazianzen. Cardinal Perron noted. LXVII. The testimony of S. Amphilochius. The most true and certain canon of Divine Scripture. Gretser the Jesuit, the Roman Expurgatory Index, and Gentian Hervet, noted. LXVIII. The testimony of Philastrius. LXIX. Of S. Chrysostom. LXX. S. Hierome's high estimation in the Church. His Prologues prefixed, and placed in the front of all the vulgar Latin Bibles. LXXI. Thirteen several and clear testimonies produced out of him. LXXII. Six exceptions against him. LXXIII. All invalid. LXXIV. The commendation of Ruffinus, and his testimony agreeing with all the Fathers of the Church before him. LXXV. Five exceptions against him. LXXVI. Answered and cleared. LXXVII. The citing of the controverted books by the Fathers, under the name of divine and prophetical writings, no good argument to prove them canonical and infallible Scripture. Some sentences of S. Augustine, and the Pope's decretals, called divine and holy scriptures. Why the apocryphal books are bound up with our Bibles, and read in our Churches. LXXVIII. No one Father during the first four centuries to be brought against us. The state of the question, concerning the testimonies of the Fathers.

CHAPTER VII.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS IN THE FIFTH CENTURY.

Page 124.

LXXIX. The common Latin Bible, which the Church of Africa used in S. Augustine's time. LXXX. Eight testimonies produced out of his works, for our true Canon of Scripture. The first edition of the Septuagint translation had none of the controverted books in it. The Hellenist Jews at Babylon and Alexandria. The Roman Septuagint set forth by

Pope Sixtus V. The apocryphal books contained in our Bible preferred before all other tractators upon the Scripture. Profitable, if they be advisedly read. LXXXI. The Romanists endeavour to make S. Augustine to confute himself. Their objection out of his book of Christian Doctrine, examined and answered. S. Augustine's caution before his general catalogue of Scripture books. The Council of Trent noted. Two sorts of canonical writings. Cardinal Cajetan's advice to the reader of S. Augustine. The Church of England hath put as many books in our Bible, as S. Augustine had in his. He pleadeth for a citation brought by him out of the book of Wisdom, but doth not say, that it was canonical and equal in authority to the Law and the Prophets. The inferior officers of the Church read the apocryphal books in a lower place: the canonical were read in a higher, by bishops and priests. Cardinal Bellarmine's thumb laid upon S. Augustine's words, which Cardinal Perron disguiseth. The Donatists, of whom the Circumcellions were a sect. They had no Scripture to defend their fury, and their self-homicide, but the book of the Maccabees; which therefore S. Augustine excludeth from the divine and indubitate canon. LXXXII. The canon of the Council of Carthage. The Roman doctors agree not about it among themselves. The African Code. In what sense that Council is necessarily to be understood. The African Bible. Cardinal Bellarmine troubled how to reconcile it with the Roman. LXXXIII. The pretended testimony of Pope Innocent the First, alleged in favour of the apocryphal books, examined and refuted. The decretal epistles of the Popes not so ancient as they are pretended to be. The Code of the Universal Church. The Code of Dionysius Exiguus. The Collections of canons made by Ferrandus and Cresconius. The original of the Roman Code. LXXXIV. The testimony of the divines in France at Marseilles, in this particular concerning the uncanonical books, unquestioned. LXXXV. Of the General Council of Chalcedon receiving and confirming the Code of the Universal Church. Wherein is included the testimony of Pope Leo the First. The Council of Carthage, no part of the ancient Code. LXXXVI. The pretended testimony of Pope Gelasius in favour of the apocryphal books, examined and refuted. The copies of Gratian various and uncertain. LXXXVII. The fine pageant of Popes, and their traditions of the Trent-canon, that Becanus dressed up. LXXXVIII. The Judaique and Christian canon of the Old Testament, one and the same. What the omnipotent faculty of the Pope cannot do. The Prefaces before the Latin Bibles.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ANCIENT ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS IN
THE SIXTH AGE.

Page 170.

LXXXIX. Cassiodore's agreement herein with S. Hierome, and ours with them both. XC. Justinian's law confirming the four first General Coun

cils, and the Universal Code. XCI. The testimony of Junilius, an African Bishop, for the explication of their canon, and the exclusion of the apocryphal books from it. XCII. Primasius followeth our account. The vanity of P. Cotton and Coeffeto. XCIII. The Testimony of Anastasius the Patriarch of Antioch for the number of canonical books. XCIV. Leontius excludeth the apocryphal writings, and is therefore censured by the Master of the Pope's palace in his Index Expurg. XCV. Victorinus the Martyr, or an ancient author under his name, acknowledgeth no more canonical books than S. Hierome did. XCVI. S. Augustine and the Council of Carthage differ not herein from the Fathers that were before them, as they all do from the Council of Trent.

CHAPTER IX.

THE TESTIMONIES OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS IN
THE SEVENTH AGE.

Page 177.

XCVII. The ancient Canon of Scripture still observed. XCVIII. All the five Patriarchal Churches testify for it. XCIX. S. Gregory's testimony to it. C. The pretences to the contrary examined and answered. At what time he wrote his Morals. Employed to be Nunce to Constantinople, wherewith the West Church at that time agreed. Card. Perron's device to defeat S. Gregory's testimony; which is given and granted to us by others of his side. CI. The book set forth under S. Augustine's name, and called The Wonders of the Scripture, excludeth the Maccabees from the canon. CII. The testimony of Antiochus a Greek Doctor. The threescore queens in the Canticles. CIII. The testimony of Isidore, Bishop of Seville in Spain. The rank and honour given to the apocryphal books, (which were written first in Greek, most of them by unknown authors,) not equal to the Prophets. The Septuagint, and other translations of the Bible. The tale, that was told Isidore by a Quidam Sapientum, and Card. Perron's vain belief of it. CIV. The Fifth [Sixth ?] General Council at Constantinople, and the Quini-Sext there in Trullo. The canons of it rejected by many Romanists, but received into the Greek Code. The Councils of Laodicea and Carthage both confirmed. Their agreement together.

CHAPTER X.

THE TESTIMONY OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL WRITERS IN

THE EIGHTH CENTURY.

Page 190.

CV. Damascen's number of Canonical books. He the first, that reduced the body of Divinity into a Scholastical method. From him P. Lombard