I shall give at the conclusion of
this section some of the references to be found in these writers to the
first two or three chapters in each Gospel.
It is but very little to say that they quote the Four as frequently, and
with as firm a belief in their being the Scriptures of God, as any
modern divine. They quote them far more copiously, and reproduce the
history contained in them far more fully than any modern divine whom I
have ever read, who is not writing specifically on the Life of our Lord,
or on some part of His teaching contained in the Gospels.
But I have now to consider the question, "To what time, previous to
their own day, or rather to the time at which they wrote, does their
testimony to such a matter as the general reception of the Four Gospels
of necessity reach back?"
Clement wrote in Alexandria, Tertullian in Rome or Africa, Irenaeus in
Gaul. They all flourished about A.D. 190. They all speak of the Gospels,
not only as well known and received, but as being the only Gospels
acknowledged and received by the Church.
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