Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, that caused
it to bee translated into Greek by seventy men, which were sent him
out of Judea for that purpose. And if the Books of Apocrypha (which
are recommended to us by the Church, though not for Canonicall, yet for
profitable Books for our instruction) may in this point be credited, the
Scripture was set forth in the form wee have it in, by Esdras; as may
appear by that which he himself saith, in the second book, chapt. 14.
verse 21, 22, &c. where speaking to God, he saith thus, "Thy law is
burnt; therefore no man knoweth the things which thou has done, or the
works that are to begin. But if I have found Grace before thee, send
down the holy Spirit into me, and I shall write all that hath been done
in the world, since the beginning, which were written in thy Law, that
men may find thy path, and that they which will live in the later days,
may live." And verse 45. "And it came to passe when the forty dayes were
fulfilled, that the Highest spake, saying, 'The first that thou hast
written, publish openly, that the worthy and unworthy may read it; but
keep the seventy last, that thou mayst deliver them onely to such as
be wise among the people.'" And thus much concerning the time of the
writing of the Bookes of the Old Testament.

The New Testament

The Writers of the New Testament lived all in lesse then an age after
Christs Ascension, and had all of them seen our Saviour, or been his
Disciples, except St. Paul, and St. Luke; and consequently whatsoever
was written by them, is as ancient as the time of the Apostles. But
the time wherein the Books of the New Testament were received, and
acknowledged by the Church to be of their writing, is not altogether so
ancient. For, as the Bookes of the Old Testament are derived to us, from
no higher time then that of Esdras, who by the direction of Gods Spirit
retrived them, when they were lost: Those of the New Testament, of which
the copies were not many, nor could easily be all in any one private
mans hand, cannot bee derived from a higher time, that that wherein the
Governours of the Church collected, approved, and recommended them to
us, as the writings of those Apostles and Disciples; under whose names
they go. The first enumeration of all the Bookes, both of the Old,
and New Testament, is in the Canons of the Apostles, supposed to be
collected by Clement the first (after St. Peter) Bishop of Rome. But
because that is but supposed, and by man