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As they have taught, who have written the history of all things concerning our Saviour Jesus Christ; and we believe them."

Quotations also are 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 authori ties 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 lumi

"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. Fabricius has observed, that this saying has been quoted by many writers, and

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nous 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

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 but just before expressly quoted Ezekiel. Mr Jones upon this circumstance founded a conjecture, that Justin 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.

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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 authors names, 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. Hegesippus* came about thirty years after Justin. His testimony is remarkable only for this particular; that he relates of himself, that, travelling from Palestine to Rome, he visited, upon 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

*Lardner, Cred. vol. i. 314.

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 admits 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

*Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 332.

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 contempo+ Lardner, vol. i. p. 344.

* John, xvi. 2.

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