72. Tertullian joins on with Clement, who says, "Among the apostles, John and Matthew teach the faith; among the apostolical men, Luke and Mark refresh it." Hence the number of the gospels, and the names of the evangelists. He affords also a complete attestation to the authority of our books, by enumerating the churches which received them: the Acts of the apostles he calls "Luke's Commentary."

Illustration. There are more and larger quotations of the small volume of the New Testament in Tertullian than there are of all the works of Cicero, in writers of all characters for several ages. Lardner. This author quotes no Christian writing as of equal authority with the Scriptures.

Remark. To prove the extent through which the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles had spread, it is observed that in less than 150 years from the crucifixion, we have Justin Martyr at Neapolis, Theophilus at Antioch, Irenæus in France, Clement at Alexandria, Tertullian at Carthage, quoting the same books of historical Scriptures.

73. During an interval of thirty years we have the fragments of several writers, in all of which there is some reference to the gospels; and in Hippolytus, as preserved in Theodoret, there is an abstract of the gospel history. Afterwards we come to Origen, whose declaration is peremptory: he says, "The four gospels are received, without dispute, by the whole church of God under heaven:" he subjoins also a history of the respective authors, and censures the Apochryphal gospel.

Illustration. The quotations from the Scriptures are so thickly sown in the works of Origen, that Dr. Mill says, "If we had all his works remaining, we should have before us almost the whole text of the Bible,"

74. Gregory and Dionysius were scholars of Origen; their testimony is but a repetition of his. In the writings of Cyprian, who flourished twenty years after Origen, there are copious citations from the Scriptures.

75. In the next forty years, the remains of a crowd of writers are to be met with, in which the historical Scriptures are always cited with profound respect. The testimony of Victoria is positive.

Remark. Victorin, bishop of Pettaw in Germany, is singled out on account of the remoteness of the situation from that of Origen and Cyprian, who were Africans; the, testimony of these, proves that the Scripture histories, and the same histories, were known and received from one side of the Christian world to the other.

76. Arnobius and Lactantius, about the year 300, in defending Christianity, derive their argumeuts from our gospel.

Illustration. Arnobius vindicates, without mentioning their names, the credit of the Evangelists, observing that they were eye-witnesses of the facts which they relate. Lactantius argues in defence of the religion from the consistency, simplicity, disinterestedness, and sufferings, of the Christian historians, meaning the Evangelists.

77. Eusebius, who flourished about the year 315, composed a History of Christianity, in which he gives quotations from each evangelist, and makes remarks upon their writings. From this time the works of Christian writers are full of references to the New Testament.

73. Proposition. The Scriptures are quoted with peculiar respect, as books possessing au authority belonging to no others, and as couclusive in all matters of controversy.

TESTIMONIES.

79. Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, speaking of the prophets and gospels, seys, all being inspired, spoke by one and the same spirit of God; and a writer against Artemon, about 158 years after the publication of the Scriptures, calls them divine.

80. Hippolitus, in quoting the books of the New Testament, professes "to draw out of the sacred fountain ;" and then quotes many parts of the New Testament.

81. Our assertions, saith Origen, are unworthy of credit; we must receive the Scriptures as wit

pesses.

82. Cyprian exhorts the christian teachers to go back to the fountain—to recur to the gospels and apostolic writings, which are nothing else than authoritative divine lessons, the foundations of our hope.

83. Novatus says, the Scripture detects and confutes fraud, but never deceives; and Anatolius calls the Scriptures divine. Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea, speaking of the rule for keeping Easter, a question at that day agitated with much earnestness, says of those whom he opposed, "they can by no means prove their point by the authority of the divine Scripture.

84. The Arians rejected certain phrases bccause they were not in Scripture; and one of them says to Augustine, "If you allege any thing from the divine Scriptures, I must hear.” And Athanasius calls the Scriptures the fountains of salvation.

85. Cyril says, "concerning the faith, not the least article ought to be delivered without the divine Scriptures.

86. Epiphanius, Præbadius, Basil, Ephraim, and Jerome, all testify to the same purport.

87. Proposition. The Scriptures were, in very early times, collected into a distinct volume.

TESTIMONIES.

88. The term gospel is probably used by Ignatius for a collection of writings, as opposed to the prophets. Clement of Alexandria, commonly expressed the writings of the New Testament by these two names: "the Gospels," and "Apostles."

89. Eusebius says, that Quadratus and others, the immediate successors of the apostles, in their travels, carried the gospels with them.

90. Irenæus refers to a collection of Christian sacred writings.

91. Melito speaks of the Old Testament; hence it is deduced, that there was then a collection of writings called the New Testament.

92. Tertullian divides the Christian Scriptures into the gospels and apostles, and calls the whole volume the New Testament; and the same division is referred to by many writers of the

third century.

93. Eusebius took some pains to shew, that John's gospel had been justly placed fourth in order. Hence the four gospels had been collected,

Illustration. In the Diocletian persecution in the year 305, the scriptures were sought out and burnt; many suffered death rather than deliver them up. Those who betrayed them to the persecutors were reckoned as apostate. Constantine, after his conversion, gave directions for multiplying copies of the divine oracles, and for adorning them at the expense of the government. What the Christians of that age so elegantly adorned in their prosperity, and so tenaciously preserved under persecution, was the very volume of the New Testament which we now read.

94. Our Scriptures were soon distinguished by appropriate titles of respect.

TESTIMONIES.

95. Polycarp calls them the Holy Scriptures; Justin Martyr, the Gospels; Dionysius, the Scripture of the Lord; Irenæus styles them Divine Scriptures, Divine Oracles: Matthew's gospel is called by Theophilus, "the Evangelic Voice." Clement styles the New Testament, "the divinely inspired Scriptures,”

96. The Scriptures were used in the public religious assemblies of the early Christians.

TESTIMONIES.

Justin, speaking of the Christian worship, says, the memoirs of the apostles are read," &c. which elsewhere he calls the gospels.

Illustration. He says in justifying himself before the emperor: "The memoirs of the apostles, or the writings of the prophets, are read according as the time allows, and, when the reader has ended, the president makes a discourse, exhorting to the imitation of so excellent an example."

97. Tertullian, on the same subject, says, we