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en, be reckoned among the Antilegomena or con-tradicted Books.
And here with the ninth Century our Author finishes his Critical History of the Revelations, notbeing able, as he pretends, to trace them furtherStep by Step for want of ancient Monuments.He presumes that it gain’d insensibly the Entrance,and at last assisted by the Gloom, crept slily and
secretly into the Canon os the Greek Church._
“ Thus, adds he, it was, that Men who lived intc the most barbarous Ages saw clearer than their“ Predecessors. Those Particulars which escap’d“ the Fathers of Laodicea , and which they had“ sought for in vain, both in the Archives and" the ‘Tradition of the Churches of Asm , the De-“ positaries of St. Johns Writings, were after-" wards found by their more knowing Posterity,“ and on these new Lights after the long Round“ of a thousand Years, the Revelations were uni-" verfally ascribed to that Apostle. For about" the tenth Century it was brought about, pretty“ much after the Hugonot Manner [/. e. by the" Suggestion of Men’s private Judgment] and not“ by the Decree of Councils , or any such Method," which tho’ it may strike more upon vulgar" Minds, is not therefore the more honour able to“ Truth.
In answer to all this I desire it may be observ’d,that the Gloom here spoken of prevailed chiefly inthe Wejlern World, and that Light and Learningnever deserted the Greek Church till it was en-slaved by the Saracens ; that the DiJ'courser false-ly represents the first Admission of the Apocalypse
in