ls were deposited,
until the other two collections had been formed. They were accordingly
kept as separate books, and sometimes bound up in a third volume of
apostolical writings. Besides these, at the time of the Council of
Laodicea, and for a long time before, other books, written by Barnabas,
Clement, Polycarp, and other companions and disciples of the apostles,
and forged gospels and epistles attributed by heretics to the apostles,
were circulated through the churches, and read by Christians. The
Council of Laodicea did, what many learned men had done before them; it
investigated the evidence upon which any of these books was attributed
to an apostle; and finding evidence to satisfy them, that the Gospel
written by Luke had the sanction of the Apostle Paul, that the Gospel of
Mark was revised by the Apostle Peter, that the Epistle to the Hebrews
was written by Paul, and the other Epistles by John, Jude, James, and
Peter, respectively, and not finding evidence to satisfy them about the
Revelation of John, they expressed their opinion, and the grounds of it,
for the information of the world.[66] Into these reasons we will
hereafter inquire, for our faith in Holy Scripture does not rest on
their canons. We are not now asking what they _thought_, but what they
_did_; and we find that they did criticise certain books, reported to be
written by the apostles of Jesus Christ some three hundred years before,
approve some, and reject others as spurious, and publish a list of those
they thought genuine. Infidels admit this, and on the strength of it
long asserted that the Council of Laodicea made the New Testament. At
length they became ashamed of the stupid absurdity of alleging that men
could criticise the claims, and catalogue the names of books before they
were written; and they now shift back the writing--or the authentication
of the New Testament--for they are not quite sure which, though the
majority incline to the former--to the Emperor Constantine, and the
Council of Nice which met in the year 325. Why they have fixed on the
Council of Nice is more than I can tell. They might as well say the
Council of Trent, or the Westminster Assembly, either of which had just
as much to do with the Canon of Scripture. However, on some vague
hearsay that the Council of Nice and the Emperor Constantine made the
Bible, hundreds in this city are now risking the salvation of their
souls.

We have in this assertion, nevertheless, as many