Excerpt from A Collection of Theological Tracts, Vol. 2 of 6 St. Peter applies this word to the books of the New, as well as of the Old Teftament, to St. Paul's Epiftlcs, in particular. 2 Pvt. iii. 16. . . as alfo in all his epijllet . . which they that are unlearned, wrrjl, as they do a/Jo the other fcriptures, unto their own dejlruttion. Plainly denoting, that * St. Paul's Epiftles arc Scriptures in the higheft fenfe of the word. II. Bible is another word, which has now been long in ufc ' ' among Chriftians, denoting the whole collection of writings received by them, as of divine Authority. The word, primarily, denotes book. But now is given to the writings of Prophets and ApoQles by way of eminence. This collection is the Boot, or Bible, the book of books, as fuperior in excellence to all other books. The word feems to be ufed in this fenfe by Chryfojlom in a paf-fagc already (a) cited. " I therefore exhort all of you to procure to your-" felves Bsblety g.Sxia. If you have nothing elfe, take care to have the " New Tell ament, particularly, the Acts of the Apoftles, and the Gof-" pels, for your conftant inftrudtors." And Jerome fays, "That ( ) the " Scriptures being all writ by one Spirit, arc called one book." Wc like-like faw formerly a pallage of Augujlin, where he informs us, " That (r) " fomc called all the canonical fcriptures one book, on account of their " wonderful harmonie, and unity of defign throughout." And I then Caid: "It is likely, that this way of fpeaking gradually brought in the general ufc of the word Bible, for the whole collection of the fcriptures, or the books of the Old and New Teltament." In Ihort, the ancient Chriftians were continually fpeaking of the Divine Oracles, and the Divine Books, and were much employed in reading them, as Otryfojhsn dircCts in a paflage, tranfcribed (d) below: where he recommends the reading the divine books daily, forenoon and afternoon. At length the whole collection was called the book, or the bible. Dr. Neumann has an Epijlle, or Ihort Diflertation (e) concerning the origin of this name of our facred collection of books. And for fome while he was of opinion, that (f it was fo called, as being the molt excellent of all books: in like manner as the Jews had before called their collection the Scriptures, by way of eminence. So Acts xviii. 24. and 28. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."