adjusted with much consideration; and that this had been done by those who were called ancients in the time of Eusebius.

In the Diocletian persecution, in the year 303, the Scriptures were sought out and burnt: 9 many suffered death rather than deliver them up; and those who betrayed them to the persecutors, were accounted as lapsed and apostate. On the other hand, Constantine, after his conversion, gave directions for multiplying copies of the Divine Oracles, and for magnificently adorning them at the expense of the imperial treasury.1 What the Christians of that age so richly embellished in their prosperity, and, which is more, so tenaciously preserved under persecution, was the very volume of the New Testament which we now read.

I. POLYCARP. "I trust that ye are well exercised in the Holy Scriptures;-as in these Scrip

Lardner, Cred., vol. vii. p. 214, &c. 1 Ibid., p. 432.

tures it is said, Be ye angry, and sin not: and let not the sun go down upon your wrath."2 This passage is extremely important; because it proves that in the time of Polycarp, who had lived with the Apostles, there rere Christian writings distinguished by the name of "Holy Scriptures," or Sacred Writings. Moreover, the text quoted by Polycarp, is a text found in the collection at this day. What also the same Polycarp hath elsewhere quoted in the same manner, may be considered as proved to belong to the collection; and this comprehends Saint Matthew's, and, probably, Saint Luke's Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, ten Epistles of Paul, the First Epistle of Peter, and the First of John. In another place, Polycarp has these words:"Whoever perverts the Oracles of the Lord to his own lusts, and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment, he is the firstborn of Satan." It does not appear what else Polycarp could mean by the "Oracles of the Lord," but those same "Holy Scriptures," or Sacred Writings, of which he had spoken before.

II. Justin Martyr, whose Apology was written about thirty years after Polycarp's epistle, expressly cites some of our present his

Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 203. • Ibid., p. 223.

Ibid., p. 222.

tories under the title of GOSPEL, and that not as a name by him first ascribed to them, but as the name by which they were generally known in his time. His words are these:-" For the Apostles in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered it, that Jesus commanded them to take bread, and

give thanks." 5 There exists no doubt, but that, by the memoirs above mentioned, Justin meant our present historical Scriptures; for, throughout his works, he quotes these, and no others.

III. Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, who came thirty years after Justin, in a passage preserved in Eusebius (for his works are lost), speaks "of the Scriptures of the Lord."6

--

IV. And at the same time, or very nearly so, by Irenæus, bishop of Lyons in France, they are called "Divine Scriptures," "Divine Oracles,"" Scriptures of the Lord,"—" Evangelic and Apostolic Writings."8 The quotations of Irenæus prove decidedly that our present Gospels, and these alone, together with the Acts of the Apostles, were the historical

books comprehended by him under these appellations.

V. Saint Matthew's Gospel is quoted by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, contemporary with Irenæus, under the title of the "Evangelic Voice: "9 and the copious works of Clement of Alexandria, published within fifteen years of the same time, ascribe to the books of the New Testament the various titles of "Sacred Books," -"Divine Scriptures," "Divinely inspired Scriptures,"" Scriptures of the Lord,"—" the true Evangelical Canon."1

VI. Tertullian who joins on with Clement, besides adopting most of the names and epithets above noticed, calls the Gospels "our Digesta," in allusion, as it should seem, to some collection of Roman laws then extant.2

VII. By Origen, who came thirty years after Tertullian, the same, and other no less strong titles, are applied to the Christian Scriptures: and, in addition thereunto, this writer frequently speaks of the "Old and New Testament"-"the Ancient and New Scriptures ". "the Ancient and New Oracles.":

VIII. In Cyprian, who was not twenty

• Lardner, Cred., vol. i. p. 427. 2 Ibid., p. 630.

Ibid., vol. ii. p. 515.

Ibid., vol. iii. p. 230.

years later, they are "Books of the Spirit," "Divine Fountains," "Fountains of the Divine Fulness." 4

The expressions we have thus quoted, are evidences of high and peculiar respect. They all occur within two centuries from the publication of the books. Some of them commence with the companions of the Apostles; and they increase in number and variety, through a series of writers touching upon one another, and deduced from the first age of the religion.

I. JUSTIN MARTYR, who wrote in the year 140, which was seventy or eighty years after some, and less, probably, after others of the Gospels were published, giving, in his first Apology, an account, to the emperor, of the Christian worship, has this remarkable passage:

"The Memoirs of the Apostles, or the Writings of the Prophets, are read according as the time Lardner, Cred., vol. iv. p. 844.