Forbidden Gospels and Epistles, Complete

CHAPTER II.

The an­swer of Je­sus by Ana­nias the foot­man to Ab­garus the king, 3 de­clin­ing to vis­it Edessa.

AB­GARUS, you are hap­py, foras­much as you have be­lieved on me, whom you have not seen.

2 For it is writ­ten con­cern­ing me, that those who have seen me should not be­lieve on me, that they who have not seen might be­lieve and live.

3 As to that part of your let­ter, which re­lates to my giv­ing you a vis­it, I must in­form you, that I must ful­fil all the ends of my mis­sion in this coun­try, and af­ter that be re­ceived up again to him who sent me.

4 But af­ter my as­cen­sion I will send one of my dis­ci­ples, who will cure your dis­ease, and give life to you, and all that are with you.

REF­ER­ENCES TO THE EPIS­TLES OF JE­SUS CHRIST AND AB­GARUS KING OF EDESSA.

[The first writ­er who makes any men­tion of the Epis­tles that passed be­tween Je­sus Christ and Ab­garus, is Eu­se­bius, Bish­op of Cae­sarea, in Pales­tine, who flour­ished in the ear­ly part of the fourth cen­tu­ry. For their gen­uine­ness, he ap­peals to the pub­lic reg­is­ters and records of the City of Edessa in Mesopotamia, where Ab­garus reigned, and where he af­firms that he found them writ­ten in the Syr­iac lan­guage. He pub­lished a Greek trans­la­tion of them, in his Ec­cle­si­as­ti­cal His­to­ry. The learned world has been much di­vid­ed on this sub­ject; but, notwith­stand­ing the eru­dite Grabe, with Arch­bish­op Cave, Dr, Park­er, and oth­er di­vines, have stren­uous­ly con­tend­ed for their ad­mis­sion in­to the canon of Scrip­ture, they are deemed apoc­ryphal. The Rev. Jeremi­ah Jones ob­serves, that the com­mon peo­ple in Eng­land have this Epis­tle in their hous­es in many places, fixed in a frame, with the pic­ture of Christ be­fore it; and that they gen­er­al­ly, with much hon­esty and de­vo­tion, re­gard it as the word of God, and the gen­uine Epis­tle of Christ.]

THE EPIS­TLE OF ST. PAUL THE APOS­TLE TO THE LAODICEANS.

1 He salutes the brethren; 3 ex­horts them to per­se­vere in good works, 4 and not to be moved by vain speak­ing. 6 Re­joic­es in his bonds, 10 de­sires them to live in the fear of the Lord.

PAUL an Apos­tle, not of men, nei­ther by man, but by Je­sus Christ, to the brethren which are at Laodicea.

2 Grace be to you, and peace from God the Fa­ther and our Lord Je­sus Christ.

3 I thank Christ in ev­ery prayer of mine, that ye may con­tin­ue and per­se­vere in good works, look­ing for that which is promised in the day of judg­ment.

4 Let not the vain speech­es of any trou­ble you, who per­vert the truth, that they may draw you aside from the truth of the Gospel which I have preached.

5 And now may God grant, that my con­verts may at­tain to a per­fect knowl­edge of the truth of the Gospel, be benef­icent, and do­ing good works which ac­com­pa­ny sal­va­tion.

6 And now my bonds, which I suf­fer in Christ, are man­ifest, in which I re­joice and am glad. For I know that this shall turn to my sal­va­tion for ev­er, which shall be through your prayer, and the sup­ply of the Holy Spir­it.

8 Whether I live or die, to live shall be a life to Christ, to die will be joy.

9 And our Lord will grant us his mer­cy, that ye may have the same love, and be like-​mind­ed.

10 Where­fore, my beloved, as ye have heard of the com­ing of the Lord, so think and act in fear, and it shall be to you life eter­nal;

11 For it is God, who wor­keth in you:

12 And do all things with­out sin.

13 And what is best, my beloved re­joice in the Lord Je­sus Christ and avoid all filthy lu­cre.

14 Let all your re­quests be made known to God, and be steady in the doc­trine of Christ.

15 And what­so­ev­er things are sound and true, and of good re­ort, and chaste, and just, and love­ly, these things do.

16 Those things which ye have heard, and re­ceived, think on these things, and peace shall be with you.

17 All the saints salute you.

18 The grace of our Lord Je­sus Christ be with your spir­it. Amen.

19 Cause this Epis­tle to be read to the Colos­sians, and the Epis­tle of the Colos­sians to be read among you.

REF­ER­ENCES TO THE EPIS­TLE OF ST. PAUL THE APOS­TLE TO THE LAODICEANS.

[This Epis­tle has been high­ly es­teemed by sev­er­al learned men of the church of Rome and oth­ers. The Quak­ers have print­ed a trans­la­tion, and plead for it, as the read­er may see, by con­sult­ing Poole’s An­no­ta­tion on Col. vi. 16. Six­tus Senen­sis men­tions two MSS., the one in the Sor­bonne Li­brary at Paris, which is a very an­cient copy, and the oth­er in the Li­brary of Joannes a Viri­dario, at Pad­ua, which he tran­scribed and pub­lished; and which is the au­thor­ity for the fol­low­ing trans­la­tion. There is a very old trans­la­tion of this Epis­tle in the British Mu­se­um, among the Harleian MSS., Cod. 1212.]

THE EPIS­TLES OF ST. PAUL THE APOS­TLE TO SENECA, WITH SENECA’ S TO PAUL.