These persons, it should be remarked, though their testimonies concur, lived in countries remote from one another. Ignatius flourished at Antioch; Polycarp at Smyrna; Justin Martyr, in Syria; Pothynus and Irenæus, in France.

ATHENAGORAS, who lived between 166 and 178, and before his conversion was an Athenian philosopher, wrote an able Apology for Christianity, which he addressed to the emperors Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and Lucius Commodus. In this, and in his discourse on the Resurrection, he quotes Matthew, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1st and 2d Corinthians, Galatians, and 1st Timothy. He seems also to refer to passages in James, 2d Peter, and Revelation.

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66 at Rome, and founding a church there. And after their exit (death, or departure), Mark also, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, de"livered to us in writing the things that had been preached by Peter: "and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the Gospel "preached by him (Paul). Afterwards John, the disciple of the Lord, "who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise published a Gospel while "he dwelt at Ephesus, in Asia. And all these have delivered to us, that "there is one God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, declared by "the law and the prophets, and one Christ, the Son of God." "The "Word," says he again, "the former of all things, who sits upon the "cherubim and upholdeth all things, having appeared unto men, has 66 given us a Gospel of a four-fold character, but joined in one spirit.— "The Gospel according to John, declares his primary and glorious gene"ration from the Father, In the beginning was the Word.-But the Gospel according to Luke being of a priestly character, begins with "Zacharias the priest offering incense to God.-Matthew relates his generation, which is according to man, The book of the generation of "Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.-Mark begins "from the prophetic spirit which came down from above to men, saying, "The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias "the prophet." Adv. Hæres. lib. iii. c. 11. et apud Grabe, p. 221; vide Lardner's Credibility, vol. ii. p. 159, edit. Kippis.

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TERTULLIAN, presbyter of Carthage, flourished at the end of the second and beginning of the third century. In his works, which are numerous and still well known, he expressly quotes all the books of the New Testament, except James, the second epistle of Peter, and the third of John. It has been remarked, that there are more quotations from the New Testament in his writings, than from the various writings of TULLY in all the ancient books in the world. This writer intimates, that the actual autographs of the Apostolic writings, or at least some of them, were preserved till the age in which he lived, and were then to be seen. (h)

After Tertullian, the successive, though in part cotemporaneous writers, HIPPOLYTUS, ORIGEN, GREGORY, DIONYSIUS, CYPRIAN, ARNOBIUS, &c. all of whom furnish strong and decided testimonies, bring us to the time of EUSEBIUS, who flourished about the year 315, and was the most accurate historian among the ancient Christian writers. He mentions it as a fact well known, and asserted by Origen and others, his predecessors, that the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Epistle of St. Paul, one of Peter, and one of John, were UNIVERSALLY received by the Church. He says Origen calls them ευαγγελια αναντίρρητα and ομολογέμενοι, as not being able to find that they had ever been disputed. And, though the Acts are not expressly mentioned by Origen in this catalogue, Euse

(h) Age jam, qui voles curiosita em melius exercere in negotio salutis tuæ, percurre Ecclesias Apostolicas, apud quas ipsæ adhuc cathedræ Apostolorum suis locis præsident, apud quas ipsæ Authenticæ Litera eorum recitantur. De Præscript. adversus Hæreticos.

bius himself declares that he has no scruple concerning that book; nay, even Origen, in another place, mentions the Acts as written by Luke, and pays the same regard to them as to the other books of the New Testament. Origen, in fact, quotes from twenty-nine books of the Old Testament, from all in the New but the Epistle to Philemon, 2 John, and Jude; and his' quotations correspond very accurately with our present text. As to those seven books of the New Testament, i. e. the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Epistle of James, the 2d of Peter, the 2d and 3d of John, Jude, and the Revelation, which had been disputed, and were therefore called by Eusebius αντιλεγόμενοι ; even he asserts, that they were at length introduced into the Canon, that is, into the number of those books which Christians regard as the rule of their faith and practice, and which they distinguish from other books written by persons whom they thought less eminently under the divine direction, whatever their sanctity might be. (i)

(4) Euseb. Eccles. Hist. 1. iii. c. xxv. Jerom also affirms that the Epistle to the Hebrews "has been received as the Apostle Paul's not "only by the eastern churches, but by all the ancient churches." Besides this, let it be remarked, that St. Peter's reference in his 2d Epistle, iii. 15, 16, is, evidently, to the Epistle to the Hebrews. Bishop Kidder has an observation relative to this epistle, richly worth transcribing "Of all the books of the New Testament, I know not any where the "mystical senses of the passages of the Old Testament, and applications "of them to the Messias (current among the Jews), are so frequent as in "the Epistle to the Hebrews. This is a probable argument (inde"pendent of all others) that it was written by St. Paul; who, having "been brought up by Gamaliel, a famous doctor, may be presumed to "be well versed in the mystical sense of the places of the Old Testament. "And he might use the greater liberty in this way, because he wrote

From the time of Eusebius, the works of Christian writers abound in references to the New Testament. But, instead of citing more, I may next observe, that the Scriptures were spoken of, and either received, or so appealed to, by the various early sects among Christians, as to prove their existence, nearly in the present shape. Thus, Tertullian assures us that Dositheus (who was a cotemporary with the Apostles) was the first who dared to reject the authority of the prophets, by denying their inspiration: but both he and his followers allowed the five books of Moses to be divine. The Ebionites again, in the first century, allowed the existence of all the books of the New Testament, but only received as divine the Gospel by Matthew. The Valentinians, about the year 120, appealed to the evangelic and apostolic writings. The testimony of Chrysostom (A. D. 398) is, that "though "to the Hebrews, who were much used to that way of interpretation, "and were best able to judge of that method which he used. I cannot "but relate a passage of a late learned writer upon this occasion. (P. "Simon, Hist. Crit. N. T. c. 21.) He tells that he gave this Epistle to "the Hebrews to a Jew to read, who was greatly acquainted with their "ancient authors. Upon the perusal of it, the Jew frankly avowed that "that book could be writ by none but by some great Mekabul (i. e. man "of tradition) of his own nation. This Jew was so far from affirming "that the writer of that Epistle has set aside the true sense of the Scrip66 ture, by allegories according to his own fancy, that he celebrated his "profound knowledge in the sublime sense of the Bible, and spake of "this great Mekabul (as he called him) with admiration." Kidder's Messias, Part ii. c. 5.

For a masterly examination of the internal evidence furnished by the Epistle to the Hebrews, that it was written by Paul, and a candid investigation of the objections of Bertholdt, Schultz, &c. see Stuart's Com→ mentary on the Hebrews, vol. i.

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many heresies have arisen, yet all have received the Gospels, either entire or in part."

In favour of the early existence of the principal books of the New Testament, I must not forget to urge that the first heathen adversaries of Christianity speak of the historical books as containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded. CELSUS, for example, in the second century, writing against Christianity, alludes to books written by the disciples of Jesus. He accuses the Christians of altering the Gospel, but this accusation is not made out by any important variations existing in the present day. He says his arguments are drawn from their own writings: and he evidently quotes from Matthew's and John's Gospels, from the Acts of the Apostles, from the various Epistles of Paul, Peter, and John. He makes the largest and most remarkable concessions about Jesus Christ; acknowledging the truth of his nativity, his journey into Egypt, his passing from place to place with his disciples, the fact of his miracles, his being betrayed, and lastly his passion and death; affirming, that after he was betrayed, he was "bound,"-" scourged,"-" stretched "upon the cross," that he "drank vinegar,"-that after his death he was "said to have appeared twice," but that "he did not appear to his enemies." He speaks, moreover, of the slaughter of the infants, of the descent of the Holy Ghost, of Christ's divinity, his worship; and collectively of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is true he ridicules most of these particulars; but he does not attempt to deny them, which he would have been ready enough to do, could he have