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118 Credibility of the Gospel History.
power, till he alone who made it shall command it to be dissolved
for affording a better state for us.' See 2 Pet. iii. 11,
12, 13. Again, he speaks of the^ world's hastening to the
fiery day of judgment: see 2 Pet. iii. 7. But this was so
common an expectation, that the present world should be
sometime destroyed by fire, that these expressions, in my
opinion, are not suflicient to determine a particular reference
to this epistle. Mr. Jackson,'' in a note upon the first cited
passage, owns that this was an expectation of the stoics.
2. ' For' John also says: " No man hath seen God at any
time," 1 John iv. 12. Again, ' We"^ find it written, that
God is called love, and that he is called light;' see 1 John
iv. 8. and i. 5.
3. I remember not any thing in this writer relating to the
other two epistles ascribed to St. John.
4. There is nothing in Novatus taken out of the epistle of
St. Jude.
5. ' But' there is a woe appointed to those who add, and
to those who lake away.' Sec Rev. xxii. 18, 19. But
whether this will be reckoned material I cannot say.
8. We are next to observe some forms of citation and
general divisions of the scriptures, and afterwards some
marks of respect for them.
1. ' " Of'" two sparrows," ' saith the Lord, " one does not
fall without the will of your Father ;" ' see Matt. x. 29, 30.
' Although" we hasten to other things, yet that I think ought
not to be omitted which the Lord saith in the gospel, for
representing his majesty : " Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will raise it up again," ' John ii. 19. ' Lastly" in the
gospel ; " the hour cometh," saith the Lord, " when neither
in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, shall ye worship the
Father," ' John iv. 21. And in like manner in other places,
as may be seen in part in what has been transcribed. He
also calls the New Testament in general p the evangelic
scripture.
B Sive quoniam ad igneum diem judicii mundus iste festinat. ib. cap. 8. p. 56.
'' Stoici contra (prope cum Christianis) igne dissolutum iri sstatuebant. Not.
ii. p. 19. ' Nam et Joannes, Deum nemo, inquit, vidit unquani,
cap. 18. [al. 2fi.] p. 13G. ^ Invenimus enim scriptum esse,
Deus caritas dictus sit,— et quod Deus lux dictus est. cap. 7. in.
quod
' Sed vae est adjicientibus, quomodo et detrahentibus, positiun. cap. 16. [al.
24.] p. 123. " Ex duobus, inquit Dominus, passeribus, unus non cadet
sine Patris voluntate. cap. 8. p. 53.
" IHud non arbilror praetennittendum, quod in evangelio Dominus ad sig-
nificantiam suie majestatis exprcssit dicendo. cap. 21. [al. 16.] init.
" Denique in evangelio, Veniet hora, aiebat Dominus, &c. cap. 6. p. 44.
P Prsesertim cum animadvertat scripturam evangelicam—cap. 13. p. 96.