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390 Credibility of the Gospel History.
' say that the God who delivered the law by Moses, and
' spake in the Hebrew prophets, is not the true God, but
' one of the princes of darkness. The scriptures oftiieNew
' Testament they receive, but say they are interpolated, tak-
' ing- what they like, and rejecting- the rest, and preferring
' to them some apocryphal scriptures as containing the whole
' truth.'
Here are therefore four things to be observed by us,-—their
rejecting- the Old Testament; >vhat books of the New Testament
they received ; then in what manner they received
them, or what regard they had for them ; and lastly, what
apocryphal books they made use of.
J I. Concerning the Old Testament.
That the Manichees universally, and, all along, rejected
the books of the Old Testament, or the Jewish scriptures, is
evident from the testimonies of almost all writers, who have
taken any notice of this people.
It is intimated by*^ Serapion.
The design of the*^ third book of Titus of Bostra was to
vindicate the Old Testament against their objections.
In the Acts of Archelaus it is represented as one article
of Mani's doctrine, that'' the Jewish prophets were deceived
by the princes of darkness : thaf^ the princes of darkness
spake with Moses, and the Jewish priests and prophets.
Mani' himself is there made to speak to the same purpose,
and to say that there are some things true and right inserted
in the Jewish scriptures, tliat the wrong might be received,
but that nothing before John the Baptist ought to be admitted
as of authority.
Faustus, we may be sure, does^ not speak with greater
reverence of the God of the Jews, than other Manichees.
He says, moreover, that'' the moral precepts of the law of
''
fitiTi Tov vofiov TiiiwvTtg. Sciap. ap. Canis. Ant. Lect. T. i. p. 47
f. Conf. p. 54. sub fin.
^ 'O rpiroc VTrep th vojua /cat twv 7rpo^»;rwr irouiTai Xoyov, wt; Jrapa t« Bm
Tcaarjq Trjr TroKautg SiaOrjictjg SoQtwrtg. Tit. ]). 59. ap. Canis.
^ rff()i c^£ Tiov Trap' rjfitv 7rpo0j;raiv utojc Xtyft -KViVfia uvea aaiftiiaQ, Tjrni
avouiag th ckothc, k. X. Ap. Arch. c. 10. ]). 18.
" Tov 6t XaXijaavra fitra Mojitewc, km tujv IsSaitov, Kui tojv 'tepeoiv, tov
apxov'