that of Epiphanius in his book of Weights and Measures, of which we took noticem formerly; and it is very agreeable to that which Melito brought with him from Palestine, of which we also took some notice" formerly; not now to mention any other.

3. J. Damascenus speaks only of two books of the secondary order, in the Old Testament; the book of Wisdom, and Ecclesiasticus: he does not mention any other, no, not so much as the books of Maccabees. The book of Wisdom he calls Solomon's, though he did not think it to be his, in compliance, it is likely, with frequent custom at that time.

4. His canon of the New Testament is the same with that now generally received by christians in this part of the world; except that here is added the Apostolical Canons by Clement, which seems to be a singularity. What Mill says relating to this in his Prolegomena I place below: I shall also transcribe below the note of Lequien, editor of Damascenus, upon this place; which, I believe, will be acceptable to my readers, on account of some observations relating to the Apostolical Canons.

And I beg leave to observe farther myself: Damascenus's catalogue of the books of scripture is very different from that in the 85th Apostolical Canon; in that are inserted Judith, and the books of Maccabees, which are quite omitted by Damascenus: moreover he receives the book of the Revelation, omitted in the same canon; and farther, he takes no particular notice of the two epistles of Clement, or of the Constitutions, which make a part of the catalogue in the last canon of the apostles. What shall we say to this? m See vol. iv. ch. lxxxiv. num. ii. and ch. cxiv. num. iv. 2. n See vol. ii. ch. xv. and vol. iv. ch. cxiv. num. iv. 2.

• Joannes Damascenus-inter canonicos reponit Canones Apostolorum dia Κλημεντος. Nempe cum universum Canonum 85 apostolicorum corpus superiore seculo synodice confirmâssent Patres Trullani, facile deinceps factum, ut a librariis (seu arbitrio suopte, seu etiam jussu superiorum) canonicis libris isti adnecterentur, tamquam ejusdem, si placet, cum reliquis juris et auctoritatis. Et talem quidem nactus jam videtur Damascenus. Proleg. n. 1027.

P Horum canonum auctoritas adstructa fuerat can. 2 Trullano. At viris criticæ artis incuriosis satis erat præfixum canonibus, qui magnæ dudum in Oriente ponderis erant, apostolorum nomen; cum tamen nihil aliud essent, nisi prisca Orientalium disciplinæ præcipua capita, quorum auctores genuini ignorabantur. Jam dixi, eorum quosdam conditos esse post exortam hæresim Anomæorum. Beveregius collectionem primam istorum Canonum a Clemente, non Romano, sed Alexandrino factam, quem Eusebius, 1. vi. Hist. c. 23. Hieronymus de Scr. Ec. et Photius cod. cxi. TƐρI KAVOVWV EKK\NOIAOTIKWV volumen edidisse testantur. Sed ex horum auctorum inspectione manifestum fit, eos non de hac collectione canonum loqui, sed de libro, in quo, adductis canonibus, seu regulis ecclesiasticis, illos impugnabat, qui Judaicis legibus et institutis adhærescerent. Lequien ad J. Damasc. p. 284.

Can we think, after all, that Damascenus had any particular regard for the Apostolical Canons? or shall we suppose. that the 85th canon was wanting in his edition of the Apostolical Canons? or shall we not be obliged to admit a suspicion, that the last clause in this catalogue of Damascenus, the Canons of the holy Apostles by Clement,' is an interpolation, or an addition made by some officious Greek to Damascenus's original work?

6

There is another doubt that may arise in the mind, supposing the genuineness of this clause: Whether by the Canons of the apostles, Damascenus means Apostolical Constitutions, or Apostolical Canons; I perceive this doubt to have arisen in Cotelerius, as it had in me, before I had observed it in him.

IV. I shall observe but a few particulars more:

1. At the beginning of his work, De Orthodoxa Fide, which is a kind of system of divinity, and reckoned to be the first regular system among christians, speaking of God, he says: All things which are delivered to us by the law and the prophets, the apostles and evangelists, we receive, acknowledge, and venerate, seeking not any thing beyond what has been taught by them.'

6

2. Again: We cannot think, or say any thing of God, beside what is divinely taught and revealed to us by the divine oracles of the Old and New Testament.' Not thatt he denies the use of reason, or that heathen people, without revelation, might, by the light of nature, learn the existence of God from his works: however, in these passages we see the general divisions of the books of scripture, and the great respect which was shown to them by christian people.

3. Damascenus seems" not to have had the heavenly witnesses in his copies of St. John's first epistle.

Cæterum an Joannes Damascenus Orthodoxæ Fidei, lib. iv. c. 18. quando Canones Apostolorum per Clementem editos cum divinis voluminibus enume-rat Constitutiones vel dumtaxat Canones Constitutionibus subnexos intelligat, quæri potest. Malim accipere de solis canonibus, quo majori parte erroris vir sanctus et doctus levetur, et quia rarior prima acceptio, &c. Coteler. Judic. de Constit. Ap. ap. Patr. Ap. T. i.

Παντα τοινυν τα παραδεδομενα ἡμιν δια τε νομ8, και προφητών, και αποστολων, και ευαγγελίσων, δεχόμεθα, και γινωσκομεν, και σεβομεν, «δεν περαιτέρω THTWV ETTİĞNTBYTES, K. X. De Fid. Orth 1. i. c. 1. T. i. p. 123. E.

* Ου δυνατον ουν τι παρα θειωδως ύπο των θείων λογιών της τε παλαιας και φαινης διαθηκης ἡμιν εκπεφασμένα-ειπειν τε περι θες, ἡ όλως εννοησαι. cap. ii. p. 125. B.

Ib.

Vid. Ib. 1. i. c. 1. et c. 3. et alibi.

U Και τρεις εἰσιν οἱ μαρτυρώντες, το ύδωρ, και το αίμα, και το πνεύμα. Hyma. Trisag. sect. iv. T, i. p. 484. C.

De

4. He seems to say, that there were then no extraordinary gifts in the church; such as the gift of knowledge, or the gift of miracles; at least he acknowledges, that he had no such gifts.

CHAP.

CHAP. CLXI.

PHOTIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

a

1. PHOTIUS, as is generally reckoned, was constituted patriarch of Constantinople in 858: but a Pagi placeth the commencement of his patriarchate in 857. It is generally supposed that he died in 891, or 892,

2. The history of his life, and his character, and good accounts of his works, may be seen in divers authors, to whom I refer. The account, which Fabricius has given of his Bibliotheque, and the several articles therein, deserves high commendations. I shall by and by take some farther notice of Photius's works, so far as they relate to the interpretation of scripture.

3. They who are pleased to look back to the ninth section of the 63d chapter of this book, may there see, that Photius received the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, and particularly, in this last, four gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, fourteen epistles of St. Paul, and seven catholic epistles: I suppose likewise, that he received the book of the Revelation; though I do not now recollect any particular proof of it.

4. Among the works of Photius are mentioned some Commentaries upon scripture; as upon the Psalms, thef

' 'Ημεις δε οἱ μηδε το των θαυματων, μηδε το της διδασκαλιας δεξαμενοι χαpioμa. De Fid. Orth. 1. i. c. 3. p. 125. D.

Crit. in Baron. Ann. 886. n. v. 858. n. xiii. xiv. 859. n. xii.

b Vid. Martin. Hank de Rer. Byz. Script. P. i. cap. 18. Cav. Hist. Lit. T. ii. p. 47. Fabric. Bib. Gr. lib. v. cap. 38. T. ix. p. 369, &c. Du Pin, Bibl. T. vii. J. C. Wolff. Præf. ad Anecd. Gr. T. i. Ja. Basnag. Hist. de l'Eglise, l. vi. ch. vi. T. i. p. 323, &c. Bib. Gr. T. ix. p. 381-508. e In Psalmos: Catena ex Athanasio,

d Vol. iii. p. 447, 448. Basilio, Chrysostomo, et Theodoro Heracleotâ, Photio. MS. in Bib. Segueriana sive Coisliniana. Vide Catal. MS. ejusdem Bib. editum a Cl. Montfauconio. p. 58, 59. Fabr. Bib. Gr. T. ix. p. 566.

Prophetarum liber cum expositione.' Extat. MS. in Bibliothecâ Vaticanâ, uti Possevinus nos docet. Cav. H. L. T. ii. p. 50.

Prophets, and St. Paul's epistles: which last is in manuscript in the public library at Cambridge, as we are assured by Cave. I place below Fabricius's account of it.

5. In the epistles of Photius, in number 248, published at London in 1651, by R. Montague, bishop of Norwich, many texts of scripture are explained.

6. There is extant in manuscript, in several libraries, a work entitled Amphilochia, consisting of 308 questions, and answers to them, addressed by Photius to Amphilochius, bishop or metropolitan of Cyzicum, to whom several of Photius's letters, published by Montague, are directed. Both Cave and Fabricius have spoken somewhat largely of this work, and deserve to be consulted. The learned Montfaucon observes, that' those questions relate chiefly to divers texts of scripture, with some other matters of literature and in his Bibliotheca Coisliniana he has exhibited the title and first words of each chapter; or the question, and the first words of the answer. Many of those questions are treated in the epistles of Photius before mentioned; which, nevertheless, Montfauçon takes no notice of: whereas, it seems to me, it would have well become the diligence of an exact editor, as he put down the titles of the chapters of that work, to have added a reference to the epistles already published, in which the answer might be seen at length. Moreover, after having put down the 308 questions, in the manner above mentioned, he transcribes at length" four of them, as specimens of the whole, and as of

m

In prophetas. MS. in Bib. Vaticanâ, ut ex Possevino Colomesius et Caveus. Fabric. ib. p. 566.

In epistolas Pauli.' MS. in Bib. Cantabrigiensi. Ex hoc commentario idem Caveus notat, plura desumsisse Ecumenium, (a quo etiam nomine tenus non raro Photius laudatur) codicem vero istum esse mutilum initio et fine, et totum in epistolam ad Romanos commentarium desiderari. Fabr. ibid. p. 566. Vid. Fabr. ib. p. 519.

i Quæstiones ac Dubia ad Amphilochium Cyzici Metropolitam, de variis S. Scripturæ locis. Extant MSS. grandi volumine, sed absque Photii nomine, in Cl. Segurii Galliæ Cancelarii Bibliothecâ: item in Bibliothesis Vaticanâ, Barberina, Bavaricâ, et forsan alibi. Cav. T. ii. p. 49. * T. ix. p. 561.

Sunt porro quæstiones et plurimum circa loca varia Scripturæ Sacræ tam Veteris quam Novi Testamenti. Intermixtæ quoque sunt aliæ philosophicæ, physicæ, grammaticæ, et aliæ id genus. Ipsæque omnes sunt numero 308. Montf. Bib. Coisl. p. 326.

m Mr. Wolfius computes that about a sixth part of the Amphilochian questions are in the epistles published by Bishop Montague. Quod ad Amphilochia ipsa spectat, sexta circiter illorum pars in epistolis Photii, quas eruditæ Montacutii industriæ debemus, extat. Vid. reliqua. Wolf. Præf. ad Curar. vol. iv. n Ex hisce porro quæstionibus paucas, quæ majoris esse videntur momenti, hic edendas duximus. Bib. Coisl. p. 345. fin.

some special moment: two of which, nevertheless, had been before published in Montague's collection of our author's epistles. One of those two questions Montfaucon recommends to the observation of the learned, as a curiosity. All this Montfauçou perceived, when he came to write his preface: nevertheless, he still calls this last-mentioned question, with the answer, an anecdote; and the better to justify himself, he says, there are some faults in Montague's edition. Well, then, let it be republished from the Coislinian manuscript, as a better copy, though the errors in Montague are not numerous: but let it not appear as a new thing, or be recommended to the attention of the public as somewhat extraordinary.

The late learned J. Č. Wolfius, of Hamburg, published a large part of the Amphilochian questions, and the answers at length, at the end of the fourth and last volume of his Curæ upon the New Testament.

7. This great critic was a great admirer of the apostle Paul, and celebrates his manly and unaffected eloquence: indeed, in one of his letters, Photius takes notice of a large number of hyperbata, or elliptical expressions, in St. Paul's epistles, where some words are transposed, and do not stand in their natural order; but then, near the conclusion of that letter, he says: There are many like elliptical expressions in Homer, Antimachus, Aristophanes, Thucydides, Plato, and Demosthenes, and in almost all other poets and orators. We may bere recollect what Irenæus said long ago, "that" the apostle frequently useth hyperbata, because of the rapidity of his words, and because of the mighty 'force of the Spirit in him.'

W

8. I shall select a few explications of texts of scripture. The first is in an epistle of Photius, which is also an Amphilochian question. The text is Luke xxii. 44. He says, that to "sweat blood," was a proverbial expression, Ep. 144. p. 201. Ep. 209. p. 306. P Quæstio clxvi. Digna sane quæ historiæ ecclesiasticæ peritis offeratur. Cujus hæresis erat Eusebius Pamphili. Bib. Coislin. p. 348.

4 Vigesimum nonum (anecdoton) ejusdem Photii quæstio, cujus hæresis esset Eusebius Pamphili. In eå vero, quæ de Eusebio agit, mendæ sunt quædam, interque alias, ToMaι pro root, quæ lectio sensum alio transfert. Id. in Præf. ad Bib. Coisl.

Vid. Ep. 165, 166.

Ep. 166. Vid. et Ep. 164.

* Και οίδα ότι εκ αν σοι δοξη παράδοξον, είναι το τοιέτον της ελλείψεως ειδος Πολλα γαρ τοιαυτα και παρ' Ομήρφ, και Αντιμαχη, κ. λ. Ep. 166. ρ. 240. See vol. ii. p. 176.

▾ Ep. 138. p. 193.

"Qu. 164. ap. Bib. Coisl. p. 338.

* Παροιμια λεγεται, επι των σφοδρα λυπεμενων και αγωνιώντων αίματι ίδρυσεν. Ώσπερ και επι των πικρως οδυρομένων· αἱματι κλαιει—ότι, ώσει