Clement heard these words from the Apostles, or first Christian teachers ?

A. It will prove what will serve almost as well; viz. that the Scriptures contain what the Apostles taught. Q. Mention the testimony of Hermas, named by Paul at the conclusion of Romans ?

A. A work is attributed to him, and most probably, correctly, called the Shepherd of Hermas; it is of incontestable antiquity, quoted by Irenæus, 178; Clem. Alex. 194; Tert. 200; Orig. 230. It contains tacit allusions to Matthew, Luke and John (without citing the place from whence they are taken); such as some of the parables, doctrines, and expressions of Christ.

Q. Does the character of weak and fanciful, which some have given it, invalidate its testimony?

A. Not for the present purpose; it is the age in which it was composed that gives value to its evidence.

Q. What is the age of the testimony of Ignatius? A. He became bishop of Antioch about 37 years. after Christ's ascension. Passages are quoted from him by Iren. 178; Orig. 230; the occasion of his Epistles is given by Eusebius and Jerome.

Q. To what Gospels does he make undoubted allusions?

A. To those of Matthew and John.

Q. What is observable in his manner of quotation ?

A. That though he mentions Paul and quotes in one place his Epistle to the Ephesians by name, in

other places he borrows from the same Epistle without mentioning it, proving the general mode of quotation at the time.

Q. What is the age of Polycarp's writings?

A. The Apostles appointed him bishop of Smyrna, and Irenæus, who had seen him in his youth, testifies as to his conduct and doctrines, being conformable to the Scriptures. We have one undoubted Epistle of his remaining.

Q. From whom did he chiefly quote?

A. From Paul; but there are copious allusions to Matthew, and some to Luke.

Q. Can you mention any remarkable instances? A. That from Matthew which fixes the authority of the Lord's Prayer, and its use among primitive Christians. There is also a decisive reference to Peter's speech in Acts (c. 2, 34).

Q. What is the date of Papias's testimony?

A. He was a hearer of John, and though his work is lost, in a passage preserved by Eusebius, he expressly ascribes the respective Gospels to Matthew and Mark.

Q. Is this mentioned directly?

A. No; he assumes the fact as well known, and tells us from what materials Mark collected his account; viz. from Peter's preaching, and in what language Matthew wrote; viz. in Hebrew.

Q. What renders these authors already enumerated highly valuable?

A. They had all lived and conversed with the

Apostles, and none of their works, short as they are, but what contain some important testimony to our Scriptures.

Q. How long was Justin Martyr after Papias?

A. About 20 years; and in his two principal writings are between twenty and thirty distinct and copious quotations from the Gospels and Acts, and if each verse and expression were counted separately the number would be very great.

Q. What is the nature of the testimony?

A. The sufferings and death, the resurrection and birth of Christ are alluded to, and from all Justin's works a complete life of Christ might be compiled.

Q. Does not Justin mention something as said or done by Christ not related in our Gospels?

A. In two instances only one a saying not in any extant work, the other, viz. the appearance of a luminous object on Jordan at Christ's baptism, is mentioned by him with a distinction from the accounts of the Apostles, and with a diminution of authority.

Q. How does Justin quote ?

A. Without mentioning the authors, as from books perfectly notorious; but he calls them "Memoirs composed by the Apostles and their Companions." Q. Whose testimony succeeds Justin's?

A. That of Hegesippus, about 30 years after.
Q. For what is it remarkable ?

A. Only for this particular: that travelling from Palestine to Rome he found that in every city the

same doctrine is taught which the law, and the prophets, and the Lord teacheth.

Q. What evidence is afforded by the Narrative sent from the churches of Lyons and Vienne to Asia, about 170?

A. It relates the sufferings of their martyrs, and contains exact reference to Luke and John, and the Acts. The testimony is carried to a higher age, as Pothinus, their bishop, was 90 years old, and whose early life, consequently, must have joined on with the times of the Apostles.

Q. How does the evidence now proceed?

A. It opens upon us full and clear with Irenæus who succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons; and the testimony which this writer gives to the authority of the New Testament and the titles which its books bear, is express, positive, and exclusive.

Q. What books does he particularize?

A. That of Matthew as written in Hebrew, that of Mark whom he designates as the disciple and interpreter of Peter, that of Luke," the companion of Paul," and that of John," the disciple of the Lord who leaned on his breast."

Q. What is inferred from the acknowledgments of the oral and written traditions in the days of Irenæus ?

A. As he states the strength and uniformity of the tradition, we are intitled, from his having also recognized the authority of the written records, to conclude that they were then conformable to each other.

Q. Has not Irenæus a fanciful argument with regard to the number of the Gospels ?

A. He endeavours to show that they could be neither more nor fewer than four.

Q. What proof is derived from this?

A. That four, and only four, were then publicly read and acknowledged.

Q. Does he also establish the credit of the Acts? A. Most explicitly: he refers to Paul's conversion, and mentions this as a proof of the author's exactness. He has also collected several texts in which the writer of the history is represented as accompanying Paul.

Q. Are there any allusions in Irenæus to apocryphal writings ?

A. None; and this is a broad line of distinction between our sacred books and the pretensions of all others.

Q. What strengthens the testimony of the period we have been considering ?

A. That it is the concurring testimony of writers in countries remote from one another. Clement lived at Rome, Ignatius at Antioch, Polycarp at Smyrna, Justin Martyr in Syria, Irenæus in France.

Q. To what books do Athenagoras and Theophilus allude?

A. The former clearly to Matthew and Luke, the latter (6th bishop of Antioch from the Apostles) evidently to Matthew and John, probably to Luke.

Q. What is mentioned of Miltiades and Pantænus, Christian writers of this age, whose works are now lost?