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424 Credibility of the Gospel History.
ciple, there must be an end to all authority and certainty in
all writings whatever. For im) writings ever had a better
testimony afforded them than tliose of the apostles and
evangelists. Nor does it weaken the credit and authority
of books, received by the church of Christ from the beginning-,
that some other writings have been without ground,
and falsely ascribed to the apostles. For the like has
happened, for instance, to Hippocrates ;
but yet his genuine
works are distinguished from others which have been published
under his name. We know the writings of the
apostles as we know the words of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero,
Varro, and others, to be theirs, and as we know the
writings of divers ecclesiastical authors ; forasmuch as they
have the testimony of contemporaries, and of those who
have lived in succeeding- times. I might moreover, by
way of illustration, produce for examples these now in
hand. Suppose some one in time to come should deny
those to be the works of Faustus, or these to be mine ; how
should he be satisfied but by the testimony of those of this
time who knew both, and have transmitted their accounts
to others? And shall not, then, the testimony of the churches,
and christian brethren, be valid here; especially when they
are so numerous, and so harmonious, and the tradition iswith
so much ease and certainty traced down from the apostles
to our time? I say, shall any be so foolish and unreasonable
as to deny or dispute the credibility of such a testimony
to the scriptures, Avhich would be allowed in behalf
of any writings whatever, whether heathen or ecclesiastical V
So writes Augustine with respect both to the genuineness
and the integrity of the scriptures of the New Testament, in
his thirty-third and last book against Faustus.
(9) I shall only add one short passage concerning- this
last particular, the integrity of the text, from another book
of the same work.
Augustine, arguing for our Lord's humanity from these
words, Rom. i. 3, " Of the seed of David according to the
non haesiteraus quid respondere debeamus? Sed quid pergam in longe praelerita?
Ecce istas litcras quas habenius in manibus, si post aliquantum
fempus vitae hujus nostrae, vel illas quisquam Fausti esse, vel has neget esse
meas, unde convincitur, nisi quia illi qui nunc ista noverunt, notitiam suam
ad longe etiam post futures continuatis posferorum successionibus trajiciunt ?
Quse cum ita sint, quis tandem tanto furore coecatur, qui dicat hoc
niereri non potuisse apostolorum ecclesiam, tarn fidem, tarn numerosam fratrum
concordiam, ut eorum scripta fideliter ad posteros trajicerent, cum eorum
cathedras usque ad praesentes episcopos certissima successione servaverint ^;
cum hoc quaHumcumque hominum scriptis, sive extra ecclesiam, sive in ipsa
ccclesia, tanta facilitate proveniat? Contr. Faust. 1. 33. cap. 6.