must have been written in the apoftolical Age itself, and that they were regarded as authentic, and as containing a just Account of the Words and Actions of our Saviour. Accordingly Eufebius, speaking of some eminent Persons that held the first Rank in the Succeffion of the Apostles, who scattered abroad the falutary Seeds of the Kingdom of Heaven all over the World, and, travelling abroad, performed the Work of Evangelists, informs us that, wherever they went preaching among the Nations, they delivered the Scripture of the Divine Gospel, i. e. they carried those facred Writings along with them, and put them into the Hands of the Christian Converts. And indeed the Writings themselves bear the evident Characters of the apoftolical Age, and not one Mark of a later Date. If the Writings of the New Testament had been written in any succeeding Age, there is great Reason to think that, in several Things, they would have been different from what they now are. It could fcarce have been avoided; but that, in some Parts of those Writings, there would have been some Reference or Allufion to Customs, Rites, Questions, or Controverfies, which had not their Rise till after the Times of the Apostles; whereas there is now nothing that in the least looketh that Way. All Things breathe the Pu

rity and Simplicity of the first Age; and the Idea, that is given of the Christian Church in the Books of the New Testament, hath the peculiar Characters of that Age, from which there were some Variations, even in the Age which immediately followed.

With regard to the Gospel of St. John, it appeareth from the Book itself, that it was written by the Disciple whom Jesus loved, and who himself faw and heard what he relateth. And it is universally agreed, that the other Gospels were written earlier than that of St. John; and that the principal Design of it was to record several Things which were not diftinctly taken Notice of by the other Evangelists. And this may be fairly concluded from the Matter of that Book, in which, though the Facts are plainly supposed that are related by the other Evangelifts, yet those Miracles and Discourses of our Saviour are principally infifted upon which either were omitted by the others, or but flightly mentioned. If we compare the Beginning of St Luke's Gospel, Chap. i. 3, 4, with the Beginning of the Acts of the Apostles Chap. i. 1, 2, as it is manifest that both were written by the fame Author, so also that he had wrote bis Gospel, before he wrote the Acts: And yet it plainly appeareth, that the Book of the the Acts of the Apostles was written in the apoftolical Age, and some Time before the Death of St. Paul: For it is evident from the Accounts given in that Book that the Writer of it was a Companion of St. Paul in his Labours and Travels, and particularly that he was with him in his Voyage to Rome, after his having been seized and accused by the Jews, with an Account of which, and of St. Paul's Preaching there two Years in his own hired House, the Book ends. It taketh no Notice of his after Travels, or of his second Imprisonment at Rome, and his Martyrdom there, which it would undoubtedly have done, as well as it doth of the Martyrdom of St. James, if it had been written, after these Events had happened. And it is a great Proof of the high Veneraration the first Christians had for these Writings that none of them ever pretended to make Additions to this Book, either with regard to St. Paul, or to any other of the Apostles. We may justly conclude then that St. Luke's Gospel, which, was written before the Acts, must have been written early in the apoftolical Age. And that of St. Matthew hath been generally acknowledged to have been written before his; and, according to the most probable Accounts, about

about the eighth Year after the Death of our Saviour.

It is no inconfiderable Argument to shew, that the evangelical Records were written in the apoftolical Age, that, though Matthew Mark, and Luke, all give a distinct Account of our Lord's Predictions concerning the Destruction of Jerufalem, and the Desolation of the Jewish Nation, yet not one of them, or of any of the other facred Writers of the New Testament, ever give the leaft Hint of the Accomplishment of those Predictions, or of the exemplary Vengeance that was inflicted upon the unbelieving Jews, though it was a Thing so much to the Honour of Chriftianity, and which mightily tended to the Confirmation of it, and was - particularly of great Importance in that early Controverfy concerning the Obligation of the Mofaical Law and Ceremonies upon the Disciples of Jesus. This sheweth that they were written before that great Event, which yet came to pass within forty Years after our Lord's Crucifixion. It is true St. John taketh no Notice of it in his Gospel, though it is generally believed to have been written after that Event; but this may be easily acccunted for, because he taketh no Notice of the Prediction itself, which had been fully recorded by all the other Evangelists, and was therefore therefore omitted by him, and consequently he had no Occasion to take Notice of it's Accomplishment.

These several Confiderations plainly lead us to conclude, with all the Evidence that can be defired in such a Case, that the Books of the Evangelists were written in the apoftolical Age: Nor do I find that the bitterest Enemies of Christianity, in the earliest Ages, ever denied this. Celfus, a Man of great Acuteness, and a virulent Opposer of the Christian Religion, who lived in the second Century, at the fame Time that he endeavours to expose those Accounts, yet all along supposeth them to have been written by Chrift's own Disciples and Attendants: And Julian the Apoftate, whose Wit and Learning, as well as Enmity to Chriftianity, is well known, when he chargeth the Christians with not continuing in the Things delivered to them by the Apostles, makes particular Mention, not only of the Apoftle Paul, but of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; which shews, that he did not deny them to be the Writers of the Books ascribed to them, and that he looked upon those Books to have been written in the apoftolical Times; and, if they were written in those Times, they were written in the Age in which the Facts there recorded were faid to