Of the counterfeit Acts of the Apostles, and of the false Revelations.
FOrasmuch as the Acts of St. Luke contain only a very small part of the Transactions of some of the Apostles, since he gives no account of the proceedings of all, neither doth he describe * 1.1 at large even all the Actions of those that are mentioned by him; They that applied them∣selves to the counterfeiting of these Records, were furnished with great variety of matter, wherein they might exercise their deoeitful Arts. The first that practised this Artifice, was a certain Priest, and a Disciple of St. Paul, who being inflamed with a false Zeal for his Master, forged under the name of St. Luke the Acts of Paul and Thecla, and was convicted of this Imposture by St. John, as we are assured by Tertullian, and after him by St. Jerome. However, the simplicity of this ancient Priest might be more easily excused, in regard that he had no ill design; but we cannot but be seized with horror when we reflect on the enormous practices of the Hereticks, who have presumed to write the Acts of divers Apostles at their pleasure, wherein they have obtruded their detestible Errors. Such were the Acts of St. Peter and St. Paul devised by the Manichees, and mentioned by Philastrius, in which the Apostles were introduced, aff••••ming, that the Souls of Men and of Beasts were of the saine nature, and working Miracles to cause Dogs and Sheep to speak: The Acts of St. Andrew, of St. John, and of the Apostles in general, substituted by the same Hereticks, according to the Testimony of St. Epi∣phanius, Philastrius, and St. Augustin a 1.2: The Acts of the Apostles counterfeited by the Ebionites, and cited by St. Epiphanius in his description of their Heresie: The Doctrine, Preaching, Voyages, and Disputes of St. Peter, falsely attributed to St. Clement, containing the Errors of the Ebionites, and the b 1.3 History of St. Paul's being snatched up into Heaven, being a Work compiled by the Gajanites; whereof the Gnosticks likewise made use, and St. Epiphanius assures us, Haeres. 8. The Acts of St. Phi∣lip, and of St. Thomas received among the Encratites and the Apostolicks, as is also observed by the same St. Epiphanius in Haeres. 47, and 61. The Memoirs of the Apostles invented by the Priscillianists: The Itinerary of the Apostles rejected in the second Council of Nice, Act. 5. to which may be added several false Relations, as that of the Lots of the Apostles rejected in the Decretal: The Writings of the Apostles compiled by Dictinius, and disallowed in the Synod of Braga, chap. 17. A Book of the Priesthood of Jesus Christ, cited by Suidas, the Author whereof pretended to prove that our Saviour was descended from the Tribe of Levi, and that he was reckoned by the Jews among the Priests: A