Acts, and in the Epistles, in no part bestows to place before the reader, in one view, the propo praise or eminence upon him. The name of sitions which comprise the several heads of our Luke is mentioned only in Saint Paul's Epistles,* testimony, and afterwards to repeat the same proand that very transiently. The judgment, there-positions in so many distinct sections, with the fore, which assigned these writings to these au- necessary authorities subjoined to each. * thors proceeded, it may be presumed, upon proper knowledge and evidence, and not upon a voluntary choice of names.

The following, then, are the allegations upon the subject, which are capable of being established by proof:

VI. Christian writers and Christian churches I. That the historical books of the New Tesappear to have soon arrived at a very general tament, meaning thereby the four Gospels and agreement upon the subject, and that without the the Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded interposition of any public authority.-When the to, by a series of Christian writers, beginning with diversity of opinion, which prevailed, and prevails those who were contemporary with the apostles, among Christians in other points is considered, or who immediately followed them, and proceedtheir concurrence in the canon of Scripture is re-ing in close and regular succession from their time markable, and of great weight, especially as it to the present. seems to have been the result of private and free II. That when they are quoted, or alluded to, inquiry. We have no knowledge of any interfe- they are quoted or alluded to with peculiar respect, rence of authority in the question, before the as books sui generis; as possessing an authority council of Laodicea in the year 363. Probably which belonged to no other books, and as concluthe decree of this council rather declared than re-sive in all questions and controversies amongst gulated the public judgment, or, more properly Christians. speaking, the judgment of some neighbouring churches; the council itself consisting of no more than thirty or forty bishops of Lydia and the adjoining countries. † Nor does its authority seem to have extended further; for we find numerous Christian writers, after this time, discussing the question, "What books were entitled to be received as Scripture," with great freedom, upon VI. That commentaries were written upon proper grounds of evidence, and without any re-them, harmonies formed out of them, different ference to the decision at Laodicea.

These considerations are not to be neglected: but of an argument concerning the genuineness of ancient writings, the substance, undoubtedly, and strength, is ancient testimony.

III. That they were, in very early times, collected into a distinct volume.

IV. That they were distinguished by appropriate names and titles of respect.

V. That they were publicly read and expounded in the religious assemblies of the early Christians.

copies carefully collated, and versions of them made into different languages.

VII. That they were received by Christians of different sects, by many heretics as well as catholics, and usually appealed to by both sides in the controversies which arose in those days.

VIII. That the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Saint Paul, the first Epistle of John, and the first of Peter, were received, without doubt, by those who doubted concerning the other books which are included in our present canon.

IX. That the Gospels were attacked by the early adversaries of Christianity, as books containing the accounts upon which the religion was founded.

X. That formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published; in all which our present sacred histories were included.

This testimony it is necessary to exhibit somewhat in detail; for when Christian advocates merely tell us, that we have the same reason for believing the Gospels to be written by the evangelists whose name they bear, as we have for believing the Commentaries to be Caesar's, the Eneid Virgil's, or the Orations Cicero's, they content themselves with an imperfect representation. They state nothing more than what is true, but they do not state the truth correctly. In the number, variety, and early date of our testimonies, we far exceed all other ancient books. For one, XI. That these propositions cannot be affirmwhich the most celebrated work of the most cele-ed of any other books claiming to be books of brated Greek or Roman writer can allege, we pro- Scripture; by which are meant those books which duce many. But then it is more requisite in our are commonly called apocryphal books of the New books, than in theirs, to separate and distinguish Testament them from spurious competitors. The result, I am convinced, will be satisfactory to every fair inquirer: but this circumstance renders an inquiry

necessary.

In a work, however, like the present, there is a difficulty in finding a place for evidence of this kind. To pursue the details of proofs throughout, would be to transcribe a great part of Dr. Lardner's eleven octavo volumes: to leave the argument without proofs, is to leave it without effect; for the persuasion produced by this species of evidence depends upon a view and induction of the particulars which compose it.

The method which I propose to myself is, first

* Col. iv. 14. 2 Tim. iv. 11. Philem. 24.
+ Lardner, Cred. vol. viii. p. 291, et seq.

SECTION I.

The historical books of the New Testament, meaning thereby the four Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded to, by a series of Christian writers, beginning with those who were contemporary with the apostles, or who immediately followed them, and proceeding in close and regular succession from their time to the present.

The reader, when he has the propositions before him, will observe that the argument, if he should omit the sections, proceeds connectedly from this point.

obediently to his holy words." We perceive also | A. D. 178; Clement of Alexandria, A. D. 194; Tertullian, A. D. 200; Origen, A. D. 230. The notes of time extant in the epistle itself, agree with this title, and with the testimonies concerning it, for it purports to have been written during the life-time of Clement.

in Clement a total unconsciousness of doubt, whether these were the real words of Christ, which are read as such in the Gospels. This observation indeed belongs to the whole series of testimony, and especially to the most ancient part of it. Whenever any thing now read in the Gospels is met with in an early Christian writing, it is always observed to stand there as acknowledged truth, i. e. to be introduced without hesitation, doubt, or apology. It is to be observed also, that, as this epistle was written in the name of the church of Rome, and addressed to the church of Corinth, it ought to be taken as exhibiting the judgment not only of Clement, who drew up the letter, but of these churches themselves, at least as to the authority of the books referred to.

In this piece are tacit allusions to Saint Matthew's, Saint Luke's, and Saint John's Gospels; that is to say, there are applications of thoughts and expressions found in these Gospels, without citing the place or writer from which they were taken. In this form appear in Hermas, the confessing and denying of Christ;* the parable of the seed sown ;t the comparison of Christ's disciples to little children; the saying, "he that putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery; the singular expression "having received all power from his Father," in probable allusion to Matt. xxviii. 18; and Christ being the "gate," or only way of coming "to God," in plain allusion to John xiv. 6; x. 7. 9. There is also a probable allusion to Acts v. 32.

It may be said, that, as Clement has not used words of quotation, it is not certain that he refers to any book whatever. The words of Christ, which he has put down, he might himself have heard from the apostles, or might have received through the ordinary medium of oral tradition. This piece is the representation of a vision, and This has been said: but that no such inference has by many been accounted a weak and fanciful can be drawn from the absence of words of quota-performance. I therefore observe, that the charaction, is proved by the three following considera-ter of the writing has little to do with the purpose tions:-First, that Clement, in the very same for which we adduce it. It is the age, in which it manner, namely, without any mark of reference, was composed, that gives the value to its testimony. uses a passage now found in the epistle to the Romans; which passage, from the peculiarity of the words which compose it, and from their order, it is manifest that he must have taken from the book. The same remark may be repeated of some very singular sentiments in the Epistle to the Hebrews. Secondly, that there are many sentences of Saint Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians standing in Clement's epistle without any sign of quotation, which yet certainly are quotations; because it ap pears that Clement had Saint Paul's epistle before him, inasmuch as in one place he mentions it in terms too express to leave us in any doubt :"Take into your hands the epistle of the blessed apostle Paul." Thirdly, that this method of In these epistles are various undoubted allusions adopting words of Scripture without reference or to the Gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint John; acknowledgment, was, as will appear in the sequel, yet so far of the same form with those in the prea method in general use amongst the most ancient ceding articles, that, like them, they are not acChristian writers.-These analogies not only re-companied with marks of quotation. pel the objection, but cast the presumption on the Of these allusions the following are clear speciother side, and afford a considerable degree of positive proof, that the words in question have been borrowed from the places of Scripture in which we now find them.

But take it if you will the other way, that Clement had heard these words from the apostles or first teachers of Christianity; with respect to the precise point of our argument, viz. that the Scriptures contain what the apostles taught, this supposition may serve almost as well.

III. Near the conclusion of the Epistle to the Romans, Saint Paul, amongst others, sends the following salutation: "Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them."

Of Hermas, who appears in this catalogue of Roman Christians as contemporary with Saint Paul, a book bearing the name, and it is most probable rightly, is still remaining. It is called the Shepherd, or Pastor of Hermas. Its antiquity is incontestable, from the quotations of it in Irenæus,

Romans i. 29.

† Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 111.

IV. Ignatius, as it is testified by ancient Christian writers, became bishop of Antioch about thirty-seven years after Christ's ascension; and, therefore, from his time, and place, and station, it is probable that he had known and conversed with many of the apostles. Epistles of Ignatius are referred to by Polycarp, his contemporary. Passages found in the epistles now extant under his name, are quoted by Irenæus, A. D. 178; by Origen, A. D. 230: and the occasion of writing the epistles is given at large by Eusebius and Jerome. What are called the smaller epistles of Ignatius, are generally deemed to be those which were read by Irenæus, Origen, and Eusebius.§

mens:

Matt.||

John.¶

"Christ was baptized of John, that all righteousness might be fulfilled by him.” "Be ye as wise as serpents in all things, and harmless as a dove."

"Yet the Spirit is not deceived, being from God: for it knows whence it comes, and whither it goes."

"He (Christ) is the door of the Father, by which enter in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the apostles and the church."

* Matt. x. 32, 33, or, Luke xii. 8, 9.

↑ Matt. xiii. 3, or, Luke viii. 5. Luke xvi. 18. Chap. iii. 15. righteousness." Chap x. 16. "Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." ¶ Chap. iii. 8. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit."

§ Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 147. "For thus it, becometh us to fulfil all

Chap. x. 9. "I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved."

We meet with quotations of three of the Gospels within the compass of half a page: "And in other words he says, Depart from me into outer darkness, which the Father hath prepared for Satan and his angels," (which is from Matthew And the following, for the sake of repeating an xxv. 41.) "And again he said in other words, I observation already made, that words of our Lord give unto you power to tread upon serpents, and found in our Gospels, were at this early day quoted scorpions, and venomous beasts, and upon all the as spoken by him; and not only so, but quoted power of the enemy." (This from Luke x. 19.) with so little question or consciousness of doubt" And before he was crucified, he said, The Son about their being really his words, as not even to mention, much less to canvass, the authority from which they were taken:

and rise again the third day." (This from Mark | viii. 31.)

In another place, Justin quotes a passage in the history of Christ's birth, as delivered by Matthew and John, and fortifies his quotation by this remarkable testimony: "As they have taught, who have written the history of all things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ: and we believe them."

Quotations are also found from the Gospel of Saint John.

What, moreover, seems extremely material to be observed is, that in all Justin's works, from which might be extracted almost a complete life of Christ, there are but two instances, in which he refers to any thing as said or done by Christ, which is not related concerning him in our present Gospels: which shows, that these Gospels, and these, we may say, alone, were the authorities from which the Christians of that day drew the information upon which they depended. One of these instances is of a saying of Christ, not met with in any book now extant. The other, of a circumstance in Christ's baptism, namely, a fiery or luminous appearance upon the water, which, according to Epiphanius, is noticed in the Gospel of the Hebrews: and which might be true: but which, whether true or false, is mentioned by Justin, with a plain mark of diminution when compared with what he quotes as resting upon Scripture authority. The reader will advert to this distinction: "And then, when Jesus came to the river Jordan, where John was baptizing, as Jesus descended into the water, a fire also was kindled in Jordan; and when he came up out of the water, the apostles of this our Christ have written, that the Holy Ghost lighted upon him as a dove."

All the references in Justin are made without mentioning the author; which proves that these books were perfectly notorious, and that there were no other accounts of Christ then extant, or, at least, no others so received and credited as to make it necessary to distinguish these from the

rest

But although Justin mentions not the author's name, he calls the books, "Memoirs composed by the Apostles;" Memoirs composed by the Apostles and their Companions;" which descriptions, the latter especially, exactly suit with the titles which the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles now bear.

VIII. Hegesippust came about thirty years after Justin. His testimony is remarkable only for this particular; that he relates of himself, that,

"Wherefore also our Lord Jesus Christ has said, in whatsoever I shall find you, in the same I will also judge you." Possibly Justin designed not to quote any text, but to represent the sense of many of our Lord's sayings. Fabricus has observed, that this saying has been quoted by many writers, and that Justin is the only one who ascribes it to our Lord, and that perhaps by a slip of his memory.

Words resembling these are read repeatedly in Ezekiel: "I will judge them according to their ways;" (chap. vii. 3; xxxiii. 20.) It is remarkable that Justin had just before expressly quoted Ezekiel. Mr. Jones upon this circumstance founded a conjecture, that Jus tin wrote only the Lord hath said," intending to quote the words of God, or rather the sense of those words in Ezekiel; and that some transcriber, imagining these to be the words of Christ, inserted in his copy the addition "Jesus Christ." Vol. i. p. 539.

† Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 314.

travelling from Palestine to Rome, he visited, on his journey, many bishops; and that, "in every succession, and in every city, the same doctrine is taught, which the Law and the Prophets, and the Lord teacheth." This is an important attestation, from good authority, and of high antiquity. It is generally understood, that by the word "Lord," Hegesippus intended some writing or writings, containing the teaching of Christ, in which sense alone the term combines with the other terms "Law and Prophets," which denote writings; and together with them admit of the verb “teacheth" in the present tense. Then that these writings were some or all of the books of the New Testament, is rendered probable from hence, that in the fragments of his works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a writer of the ninth century, enough, though it be little, is left to show, that Hegesippus expressed divers things in the style of the Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles; that he referred to the history in the second chapter of Matthew, and recited a text of that Gospel as spoken by our Lord.

IX. At this time, viz. about the year 170, the churches of Lyons and Vienne, in France, sent a relation of the sufferings of their martyrs to the churches of Asia and Phrygia.* The epistle is preserved entire by Eusebius. And what carries in some measure the testimony of these churches to a higher age, is, that they had now for their bishop, Pothinus, who was ninety years old, and whose early life consequently must have immediately joined on with the times of the apostles. In this epistle are exact references to the Gospels of Luke and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles; the form of reference the same as in all the preceding articles. That from Saint John is in these words: "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service.”+

X. The evidence now opens upon us full and clear. Irenæus succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons. In his youth he had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John. In the time in which he lived, he was distant not much more than a century from the publication of the Gospels; in his instruction, only by one step separated from the persons of the apostles. He asserts of himself and his contemporaries, that they were able to reckon up, in all the principal churches, the succession of bishops from the first. § I remark these particulars concerning Irenæus with more formality than usual; because the testimony which this writer affords to the historical books of the New Testament, to their authority, and to the titles which they bear, is express, posiwhich this testimony is contained, opens with a tive, and exclusive. One principal passage, in precise assertion of the point which we have laid down as the foundation of our argument, viz. that the story which the Gospels exhibit, is the story which the apostles told. "We have not received," saith Irenæus, "the knowledge of the way of our salvation by any others than those by whom the Gospel has been brought to us. Which Gospel they first preached, and afterwards, by the will of God, committed to writing, that it might be for time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith.

Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 332.
John xvi. 2.

§ Adv Hæres. 1. iif. c. 3.

Lardner, vol. i. p. 314.