CATHOLICISM and LIBERTY for the church. Catholicism. Assuredly the Reformed church possesses it, for it has never ceased to make the great Christian union one of its most fervent desires, one of its dearest objects. It possesses it in a far higher degree than the self-styled Catholic church, which has ever unhesitatingly cut off from its communion every man who has had any degree of truth and life. It did so to Jansenius, and almost to Fenelon. But if Grace is the sun of the Reform, and if Catholicism is one of its poles, Liberty is the other pole. Catholicism for that church as a body, and liberty for its individual members. Individuality and catholicism are both equally essential to it; and to rise against either of them is to cease to be Reformed. Thus, in the day when the Lord will bring his army together in holy solemnity, in the day when the body of Christ will unite its scattered members, the Reformed church will advance, bringing as a gift to the new church these three things which will abide: Grace, Catholicism, Liberty. What other church can bring so sublime an offering? We say then in conclusion, let us be intelligent, faithful and unchangeable sons of the Reform; let us be such, not only here, in Geneva, but in Lausanne, in Neuchâtel, in all Switzerland, in France, in Holland, in Scotland, in England, in Germany, in America. The fate of the church depends on this. Shall we forget our fathers, their principles, their struggles, their faithfulness, their blood? Whilst they took such care to preserve the Reform pure, not only in relation to Popery, but also in all its secondary aspects, shall we lightly forsake the precious principles of their faith? Shall we walk over their tombs, treading under foot their bones and scattering their ashes to the winds? Doubtless, Lutheranism has its work as well as ours. Doubtless Lutheranism and the Reform ought to walk hand in hand beneath the banner of Christ, to the conquest of the world. And, that we should do our ally the service which he has a right to expect of us, we must be ourselves. And are we that? Ah! He who wrote to the seven churches of Asia those Revival-letters, speaks to us too. are whose "hands fall down, and he exclaims to the Reform: Seeing how many there whose knees are feeble," "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. Keep that which is committed to thy trust by the spirit which dwelleth in thee." The Reform is the church of the present day; the Confession of the present, as a German writer calls it. Its special work, given to it by the Lord, is the bringing together of the nations. Let it then advance with freedom and courage in the world, and let it there accomplish the sacred function which it has received from the Most High, and, as the sixteenth century was the century of a great separation, may the nineteenth become, by the prayers and labors of the Reform, the century of a great union. "I will make thee a pillar in the temple of my God." ARTICLE VII. DOMINICI DIODATI I. C. NEAPOLITANI, DE CHRISTO GRÆCE LOQUENTE EXERCITATIO. Translated by O. T. DOBBIN, LL. D., of Western Independent College, Exeter, England. Continued from page 476, Vol. XII. § 5. The Jews taught their children the Greek alphabet in their schools. To the points already enlarged upon is added another, drawn from the book De Infantia Domini, or the Protevangelion of Thomas, lately published by the learned John 1 "Die Confession der Gegenwart."-LANGE. Aloysius Mingarelli, Greek professor in the High School at Bonn. And although I own the tract to be stuffed with fables and lying prodigies of the Saviour, why should I not seek to extract truth from fables, as chemists do the antidote from poison, the more so as the proverb justly says, "The Cretans do not always lie." We are urged to the attempt by the very remote antiquity of this fabrication, being supposed a production of the Marcosians, or Gnostic heretics of the second century. For not only have Cyril of Jerusalem,2 Gelasius,' the seventh œcumenical council, and other ancient authorities, mentioned it, but also Irenæus," who lived in that century, and Origen, who was nearly as early. In the sixth chapter of this work, Zacchæus the schoolmaster is introduced teaching the child Jesus the Greek letters :-Καὶ εἶπεν αὐτῷ πάντα τὰ γράμματα, ἀπὸ τοῦ Α ἕως τοῦ Ω, μετὰ πολλῆς ἐξετάσεως ξανῶς· ἐμβλέψας δε τῷ καθηγητῇ Ζακ A fragment of the Pseudo-Evangelium of Thomas was first published by Jean Baptiste Cotelier, (1) from a MS. discovered by him in the Bibliothèque Royale in Paris. This was published a second time by Lambecius, with the addition of various readings from a manuscript in the Royal Library, Vienna. (2) It next appeared in John Albert Fabricius's Codex Apocryphus of the New Testament. (3) At length the entire Pseudo-Evangelium appeared under the hands of J. A. Mingarelli, Reg. Canon of St. Saviour's, at Bonn, from a paper MS. of the fifteenth century in the library of that church. But though this copy of Mingarelli appears to be in all essential respects identical with Cotelier's, nevertheless there will be found no slight variations between them upon examination. But whereas the Mingarellian Codex introduces the schoolmaster Zacchæus teaching Jesus the Greek letters, which is Irenæus's reading—and not the Hebrew as in Cotelier--the testimony of that early father confirms the codex of Mingarelli rather than the fragment of Cotelier. For further information, however, in regard to this topic, we must refer to the very learned letter of Mingarelli to Father Ricchinius at the end of the Pseudo-Evangel, well deserving the attention of the reader. [See Jones on the Canon, p. 3, c. 23. ED.] 2 Cyrillus Hierosol. Catechesi. 4 et 6. 3 Gelasius in Decreto de libris apocryphis. Synodus Actio 2, par 5, tom. 7, edit. Labbaæi. • Irenæus, Adversus Hæreses, lib. 1, cap. 20. Origenes, Homilia 1 in Lucam, tom. 3, p. 933. (1) Cotelerius in Not. ad Const. Apost. lib. 6, cap. 16. χαίῳ λέγει αὐτῷ, Σὺ τὸ ἄλφα μὴ εἰδῶς κατὰ φύσιν, τὸ βῆτα πῶς ἄλλους διδάσκεις; ὑποκριτὰ, πρῶτον εἰ δίδαξον τὸ Α· καὶ τότε σοι πιςεύσωμεν περὶ τοῦ Β· “ Et (Zacchaus) dixit ei (id est Jesu) omnes literas ab alpha ad omega, dilucide singulas expendens, atque accurate. Intuens autem magistrum Zacchæum dicit ei Jesus, Tu quum literæ alpha naturam ignores, quomodo alios doces literam beta? Hyprocrita doce prius si nosti literam alpha, et tunc tibi credemus dicenti de litera beta." And although the Parisian copy here names the Hebrew letters, and the Arabic Pseudo-Evangelium also in its 48th chapter, yet is the Mingarellian reading to be preferred, because it is evidently the oldest; for thus too reads Irenæus, whose testimony follows:— Ως τοῦ Κυρίου παιδὸς ὄντος, καὶ γράμματα μανθάνοντος, καὶ τοῦ διδασκάλου αὐτῷ φήσαντος, και θῶς ἔθος ἐςὶν, Εἰπὲ ἄλφα, ἀποκρίνασθαι τὸ ἄλφα· πάλιν τε τὸ βῆτα του διδασκάλου κελεύσαντος εἰπεῖν, ἀποκρίνασθαι τόν Κύριον. Σύ μοι πρότερον εἰπὲ τί ἐςι τὸ ἄλφα, καὶ τότε σοὶ ἐρῶ τί έςι τό βῆτα. καὶ τοῦτο ἐξηγοῦνται, ὡς αὐτοῦ μόνου τὸ ἄγνωςον ἐπιςαμένου, ὁ ἐφανέρωσεν ἐν τῷ τύπῳ τοῦ ἄλφα; “ Quum Dominus puerili ætate esset, atque elementa disceret, ac ludimagister, ut mos est, ei dixisset, Dic alpha, respondit, alpha : quumque rursus beta dicere jussisset, respondit Dominus, Tu mihi prius dic, quid sit alpha, tumque dicam quid sit beta. Idque ita interpretantur, quasi solus ipse id quod cognitionem superat norit, quod quidem in figura ipsius alpha declaravit." reading, then, as that of Irenæus, is obviously the one to be retained. Besides, in the 14th chapter of the Protevangelion it is written :Ἴδει γὰρ ὁ διδάσκαλος τὴν πείραν τοῦ παιδίου, καὶ ἐφοβήθη αὐτόν· ὅπως γράψας τὸν ἀλφάβητον, ἐπετήχευεν αὐτὸν ἐπὶ πολλὴν ὥραν, καὶ οὐκ ἀπεκρίνατο αὐτῷ· εἶπε δὲ αὐτῷ ὁ Ἰη σους· Εἱ ὄντως διδάσκαλος εἶ, καὶ εἰ οἶδας καλῶς τὰ γράμματα, εἰπέ μοι τοῦ ἀλφα τὴν δύναμιν· καγώ σοι ἐρῶ τὴν τοῦ βῆτα· « Noverat enim magister peritiam pueri, et tinuit eum: et scribens alphabetum, exercuit illum ad longam horam, et non respondit ei. Dixit autem illi Jesus, Si vere magister es, ac si recte literas nosti, dic mihi vim literæ alpha, et ego tibi dicam vim literæ beta." What then do these passages indicate, if not that in the time of Christ the Greek was vernacular This in Judæa-so prevailing, in fact, that their children learned Greek at school? This apocryphal volume was composed, as we have already said, in the second century after Christ, not long after the subversion of Judæa, and consequently while it was well known what language the Jews spoke at that period. Nor, we must add, is it at all likely that the forger of the narrative, who of course desired to win general credence for his work, would have committed a mistake in a matter in which detection was the easiest thing in the world. Must we not, then, allow the Jews the use of the Greek language, seeing that this production claims it for them so clearly? 6. The Jews used Greek Bibles. Our sixth proof is derived from the use of Greek Bibles by the Jews. In early times, the sacred books only appeared in Hebrew; and although the pure Hebrew was no longer commonly understood by the Jews after the Babylonish captivity, yet on account of their veneration for the sacred tongue, the Hebrew Scriptures continued to be read in their religious assemblies, an interpreter standing by the reader and explaining the text as he proceeded. But about the time of Christ, the Jews, giving up the use of the Hebrew original, adopted the Greek version of the Seventy interpreters, and read it in their synagogues. We assert this on the authority of Justin Martyr, a Samaritan, who lived at the beginning of the second century, and who, treating of this same version, says :-" If any one should now object that these are not our books, but those of the Jews, because up to the present day they are kept in the synagogues," etc., etc. Tertullian's testimony is the counterpart of this, who says, "The Jews also read in public: the tributary (vectigalis) liberty is commonly enjoyed on every Sabbath." By the word vectigalis, is generally 'Maimonides, Hilcoth Tephil. cap, 12, § 10. Mischna in Tract. Megill. cap 4. Justinus Martyr, Cohort. ad Græcos, p. 14, lit. c. ed. Paris. |