That we may proceed in some order, not leaving those we have nothing to say to, nor are willing to examine, whilst they are but tliin and come not in troops, unsahited, the first writings that are imposed on us after the canonical Scriptures are the eight books of Clemens, commonly called the Apostles' Constitutions, being pretended to be written by him at their appointment, with the Canons ascribed to the same persons. These we sliall but sakite: for besides that they are faintly defended by any of the Papists, disavowed and disclaimed as apocryphal by tlie most learned of tliem, as Bellnrmine, De Script. Eccles. in Clem., who approves only of fifty canons out of (nghty-five; liaronius. An. Dom. 102, 14, who adds thirty more; and Binius, with a little enlargement of canons, in Tit. Can. T. 1,
A PREFACE TO THE READER. 27
Con. p. 17; and have been thoroughly disproved and decried by all ]irotes- tant writers that have had any occasion to deal witli them ; their folly and falsity, their impostures and triflings, have of late been so fully manifested by Dallfeus, De Pseudepigraphis Apostol., that nothing need be added thereunto. Of him may Doctor H. H.^ learn the truth of that insinuation of his, Dissert, de Episcop. ii. cap. vi. sect, 3, " Canonc apostolico secundo semper inter genuinos habito;" but of the confidence of this author in his assertions afterward. This, indeed (insisted on by Dalla^us, and the learned Usher in his notes upon Ignatius), is childishly ridiculous in them, that whereas it is pretended that these Constitutions were made at a convention, of the a])ostles, as lib. vi. cap. xiv., they are brought in discoursing rjiJ^ng oZv i'lr) TO avTO yivo/Mivoi, U'sr^og xai ' Avd^iag, 'idy.CfiQog %ai 'lojdvvrig v'loi ZsSs- haiov, etc. They are made to inform us, lib. ii. cap. Ivii., that the Acts written by Luke and read in the churches are theirs, and the four books of the Gospel ; whereas the story of the death of James (here said to be together with the apostles) is related Acts xii., and John, by the consent of all, wrote not his Gospel until after the dissolution of his associates. Also, they make Stephen and Paul to be together at the making of those Constitutions, lib. viii. cap. iv, (whereas the martyrdom of Stephen was before the conversion of Paul), and yet also mention the stoning of Ste- phen, lib. viii. cap. xlvi. Tiiey tell us whom they appointed bishops of Je- rusalem after the death of James, and yet James is one of them who is met together with them, lib. vii. cap. xlviii. Nay, mention is made of Cerinthus, and that Mark the heretic, Menander, Basilides, and Saturninus, were known and taken notice of by the apostles, who all lived in the second century, about tlie reign of Hadrian, as Eusebius manifesteth, and Clem. Alex., Strom., lib. vii.
But, to leave such husks as these unto them who loathe manna, and will not feed on the bread that our heavenly Father hath so plentifully pro- vided for all that live in his family or any way belong to his house, let us look onward to them that follow, of whose truth and honesty we have more assurance.
The first genuine piece that presents itself unto us on the roll of anti- quity is that epistle of Clemens which, in the name of the church of Rome, he wrote to the divided church of Corinth ; which being abundantly testified to of old, to the great contentment of the Christian world, was published here at Oxford some few years since, — a writing full of ancient simplicity, humility, and zeal. As to our present business, much, I confess, cannot be pleaded from hence, beyond a negati\e impeachment of that great and false clamour which our adversaries have raised, of the consent of the primitive Christians with them in their by-paths and ways of error. It is true, treating of a subject diverse from any of those heads of religion about which our contests are, it is not to be expected that he should any- where plainly, directly, and evidently, deliver his judgment unto them. This, therefore, I shall only say, that in that whole epistle there is not one word, iota, or syllable, that gives countenance to the tenet of our adversaries in the matter of the saints' perseverance; but that, on the contrary, there are sundry expressions asserting such a foundation of the doctrine we maintain as will with good strength infer the truth of it. Page 4, setting forth the virtues of the Corinthians before they fell into the schism that occasioned his epistle, he minds them that dydiv rtv h[MTv ri/j^i- pag Ti zai vvzrhg uTsg 'Trdffrjc ryjg d.diX(p6Tr}Tog, ug to 6uiZ,s(S&ai {JjIt sXsovg za,l
' The initials of Henry Hammond. An account of Owen's controversy witli him will be found in a note at the end of the preface.— Ed.
28 A PREFACE TO THE READER.
ffvvtihriSiui rh aoidfiov ruv ixXixruv aOroD. That God hath a certain num- ber of elect to he saved, and for whose salvation, bv his nierey, the church is to contend with him, is a principle wholly inconsistent with those on which the doctrine of the saints' apostasy is bottomed. Corresponding hereunto is that passasje of his concerning the will of God, p. 12: Hdvrag ouv ro-jc aya-r,T(,\ji a'jrou ^ovKo/juvoc /jjsravoiac /JUTaey^iTv, $a-r;^i:^iv r-SJ tolv- roxooLToeixip ^o\jXr,!Ji.ari auroiJ. A mere consideration of this passage caus- eth me to recall what but now was spoken, as though the testimony given to the truth in this epistle were not so clear as might be desired. The words now repeated contain the very thesis coiitended for. It is the be- loved of God (or his chosen) whom he will have made partakers of saving repentance; and hereunto "he establisheth them" (for with that word is the defect in the sentence to bo supplied) " by,"' or with, " the almighty will." Because he will have his beloved partakers of saving repentance and the benetits thereof, he confirms and establishes them in it with his omni- potent or sovereign will. The inconsistency and irreconcilablericss of this assertion with the doctrine of these saints' apostasy, the learned reader needs not any assistance to manifest to him. Answerably heremito he saith of God, 'ExXo^^c ,u.f5o; (^,aac) i--oir,6iv ia-jruj, p. 38 and p. 66: mentioning the blessedness of the forgiveness of sins, out of Ps. xxxii., he adds, O5ro? 6 fj,axacieij,og iy'iMro i-Ti rovg sxXiXiy,u,hovi i-~b rcxj 0£oi3 dia. 'Ir,so^ Xe/ffroD roD K-jelou r,,iLujv. The elect of whom he speaks are those on whom, through and for Christ, God bestows the blessetiness of justification; elect they are of God antecedently to the obtaining of that blessedness, and through that they do obtain it : so that in that short sentence of this author, the great pillar of the saints' perseverance, Avhich is their free election, the root of all the blessedness which afterward they enjoy, is established. Other passages like to these there are in that epistle; which plainly deliver the primitive Christians of the church of Rome from any conununion in the doctrine of the saints' apostasy, and manifest their perseverance in the doctrine of the saints' perseverance, wherein they had been so plentifully instructed, not long before, by the epistle of Paul unto them.