A. Eusebius records that the works of the former were monuments of zeal for the Divine Oracles, and Jerome says of the latter, that he was learned and had left many commentaries on the Scriptures.

Q. What was the age and character of Clemens Alexandrinus ?

A. He followed Irenæus at the distance of 16 years, and was the most voluminous of ancient Christian writers.

Q. What does he say of the order of the Gospels? A. That those containing the genealogies were written first, Mark's next, and John's last. This proves that these were the histories of Christ then publicly received and relied on.

Q. Does he not put a marked distinction between them and all other histories or pretended histories of Christ ?

A. Yes; he has these remarkable words, "We have not this passage in the four Gospels delivered to us, but in that according to the Egyptians."

Q. What does Tertullian testify, whose age joins on with that of Clemens Alexandrinus?

A. The number of the Gospels, the names of the Evangelists, their proper descriptions, a list of the churches founded by Peter, Paul, and John, he also shows the universality of the Gospels, and their antiquity. His evidence is not more than 150 years after their publication.

Q. Does Tertullian quote any Christian writing as of equal authority with the Scriptures?

A. None; and no spurious books at all. This broad distinction, and the widely-extended reputation of the Gospels and Acts, and the perfect consent of distant and independent societies may again be remarked.

Q. After what interval does the testimony of Origen of Alexandria succeed?

A. After 30 years. He mentions the exclusive reception of the four Gospels and no other Gospels; he attests the authority of the Acts, and states the universality of the Scriptures in so many quotations that, Dr. Mill says, if we had all Origen's works remaining, we should have almost the whole text of the Bible.

Q. Does not Origen notice certain Apocryphal Gospels?

A. Only in order to censure them, and always quotes them with direct reprobation, or caution to his readers.

Q. What is the character of the evidence of Gregory of Neocæsarea, and Dionysius of Alexandria? A. Though full and particular, it is only a repetition of that of Origen, their master.

Q. When did Cyprian of Carthage follow Origen? A. Twenty years after. He has constant and copious citations from Scripture, quotes the four Gospels, and mentions Acts as the Divine Scriptures.

Q. Particularize the testimony of one of the many writers who followed Cyprian within 40 years?

A. Victorin, bishop of Pettaw in Germany, in 290,

D

cites expressly the Acts, and comments on the four beasts in the Revelation, fancifully showing that they are symbols of the four Gospels.

Q. Why did Arnobius and Lactantius (A. D. 300) in their arguments on the credibility of Christianity, abstain from quoting Christian books by name?

A. One of them gives the reason; viz. that their arguments were addressed to the Gentiles; but the statements exhibit a summary of Christ's life and miracles, as mentioned by the Evangelists.

Q. With what do you close this series of testimonies ?

A. With that of Eusebius, 345, who composed a History of Christianity, from its origin to his own time.

Q. What is the character of his evidence?

A. It is that of a man much conversant with Christian writings during the first 300 years of our æra, and who had read many now lost.

Q. What particulars may be remarked?

A. His notice of the manner of the Evangelists, his long quotations from each by way of illustration, his treating in form and at large, of the occasion of writing the Gospels, and the order in which they were written (in which he shows that John's was written last, to supply the omissions of the others), and his making no use of any spurious Christian writings.

Q. Why do you close this branch of evidence here?

A. Because after Eusebius there is no room for any question on the subject, the works of Christians being as full of texts as the discourses of modern divines.

SECTION 2.

Q. State the second proposition?

A. When the Scriptures are quoted, or alluded to, they are quoted with peculiar respect, as books sui generis; as possessing an authority which belonged to no other books, and as conclusive in all questions and controversies amongst Christians.

Q. Enumerate some specific testimonies besides the general strain of reference and quotation which indicates this distinction?

A. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, quotes one of the Gospels (John's) as the work of one moved by the Holy Spirit, and asserts, that the Gospels being inspired, spoke by one and the same Spirit of God. A writer against Artemon calls them the Divine Scriptures, about 158 years after their publication.

Q. What is the character of them from the piece ascribed to Hippolytus ?

A. It calls them the Sacred Fountain.

Q. How are they designated by Origen, Cyprian, and Novatus, who were nearly contemporaries ?

A. The first considers them as Divine Scriptures and of paramount authority; the second as the Fountain, as authoritative divine lessons; the last

calls them Divine Writings, the Divine Scripture, Heavenly Scriptures which never deceive. Anatolius, bishop of Laodicea, 20 years after Novatus, refers to the authority of the Divine Scriptures."

Q. What testimony do the Arians and their antagonist Athanasius afford?

A. The former, though heretics, and though they disregarded "unscriptural expressions" bowed to the authority of the Divine them and their opponents. Fountain of Salvation, and says,

Scriptures as common to The latter calls them the "Let no man add

to them nor take any thing from them.”

Q. Enumerate some others, whose expressions confirm the position?

A. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, who mentions the exclusive authority of the "Divine Scriptures," Epiphanius, who refers to the Old and New Testament against the Arians, Pœbadius, a Gallic bishop, who says, that the bishops at the council of Nice consulted the Sacred Volume." Basil, bishop of Cappadocia, recognized their exclusive authority, and Ephraim, the Syrian, calls it the Sacred Volume of the Gospel.

Q. Why is Jerome added to these.

A. Only for the evidence which he affords of the judgment of preceding ages, who, speaking of writers ancient in the year 400, says, that they made a distinction in books, some (i. e. the Scriptures) they quoted as authority, others not; i. e. books Apocryphal, or heathen.