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410 Credibility of the Gospel History.
' it the gospel, however, when it is not; for they have not
' the body [or substance] of the gospel.'
Presently afterwards he says that ' they^ had treated the
' scriptures worse than the heathens : for they otdy rejected
' them, whereas these men, pretending" to receive the gospels,
' have abused, perverted, and adulterated them.'
More to the like purpose may be seen in" Titus. But I
suppose 1 have transcribed enough to satisfy every one concerning-
the nature
this people.
of the charge which he brings against
And there is reason to think that he ag-gravates and exaggerates
beyond the truth. Therefore Mill "^ saysjudiciously,
' they did not alter the gospels ; they only said of those pas-
' sages, which they did not like, that they were additions,
' made long ago by some corrupters of the scriptures.' And
Beausobre> has shown largely, that Titus has in part misrepresented
the case.
Jerom intimates either^ that the Manichees curtailed the
copies of the New Testament, or did not receive and admit
the authority of every thing found in the copies generally
used by the catholics.
What Photius says of Agapius was observed* formerly.
He does not expressly charge Agapius with pretending that
the books of the New Testament were interpolated.
Augustine often speaks of this matter. Divers of his
passages must be produced.
The general account which he gives in his Retractations
of what he wrote against Faustus, is this :
' P
wrote a large
' work against Faustus, blaspheming the law and the pro-
' phets, and their God, and the incarnation of Christ, and
^ 01 Ss si\r]^(vai Soksvtsq, ivt^OTtvaav, ivtxopivaav, ivtKaTrr)Ktvaav
ToiQ yoaiiiiam- ib. p. 139. " Id. ib. p. )40, 141.
* Noil quidem palam rejecti istis capitulis, sed dissimulatis, seu ita apud
p.nimum repudiatis ; ut nihilominus, cum ab eis premerentur, hand necesse
haberent, cum Marcionitis, reformare codices sues, sive ex ipsis tollere quae
sibi minus probata fuermt ; sed sufficeret dixisse, loca ilia jam olim a corrup-
loribus S. textus fuisse inserta.—Mill. Proleg. n. 726. Gemina istis, ipsiusque
textCis depravationem objicit Manicha;is Titus. Dicit eos circumcidisse evan-
gelia. — Verum crimiiiatio haec quousque valeat, et quomodo interprelanda sit,
ex supra dictis liquet—non mutilantes quidem scripturas, lextumve ipsum
quovis modo mutantes. Id. n. 7G1.
y Hist, de Manich. T. i. p. 302—309.
^ Marcion et Manichaeus hunc locum, in quo dicit apostolus. Quae quidem
sunt allegorica, et caetera quae sequuritur, [Gal. iv. 24.] de codice sue tollere
noluerunt, putantes adversum nos relinqui. Ilier. in Gal. T. 4. p. 281. f.
* See before, p. 398. '' Contra Faustum Manichaum,
blasphemantem l^em et prophetas, et eoruni Deum, ot incarnationem Christi
scripturas autem Novi Testamenti, qmbus convincitur, falsatas esse dicentem,
$cripsi grande opus. Retr. 1. 2. c. 7.
;