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SECT. IX.

St. Jerom vmdic cited.

FT ER Aujiin has sufficiently smarted un-

der the Correction of our Adversary, Je-

rom comes next under his Lash. “ Jerom, fays" he, tho’ a better Critick than St. Aujiin, does“ not however give us any better Light into this<c Matter, being satisfied, as he himself tells us," with receiving the Revelations on the bare Te-" stimony of the Ancients who quoted them. We“ have already observ’d what may be infer’d from" these Quotations; and as on the one Hand the" Ancients, such as Justin, Irenceus, &c. quoted“ this Book; so on the other, the Ancients also" doubted whether it were genuine or not, a Cir-" cumstance we are told by Eufebius, that liv’d“ earlier than Jerom, who himself ought to have" removed that little Obstacle.” St. Jerom s Ar-gument is here partially represented. For hedoes not receive the Revelations barely because theAncients quoted them, but because they generallyuse their Authority, as they do that of other un-questionably Canonical and Ecclejiajlical Books,not as they sometimes use the apocryphal Wri-tings *. What better Light into this Matter canbe desired! I have already observed, and amweary with observing, what may be inferr’d fromsuch perpetual Misrepresentations. They plainlyihew, that our anonymous Author is a Slave to

* Hieron. Ep. 119. ad Dardanum.

his