the way of our salvation by any others than those by whom the gospel has been brought to us; which gospel they first preached, and afterwards by the will of God committed to writing, that it might be for time to come the foundation and pillar of our faith.- For after that our Lord rose from the dead, and they [the apostles] were endued from above with the power of the Holy Ghost coming down upon them, they received a perfect knowledge of all things. They then went forth to all the ends of the earth, declaring to men the blessing of heavenly peace, having all of them, and every one alike, the gospel of God. Matthew then, among the Jews, wrote a gospel in their own language, while Peter and Paul were preaching the gospel at Rome, and founding a church there. And after their exit, [death,] or departure, Mark also, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, delivered to us in writing the things that had been preached by Peter: and Luke, the companion of Paul, put down in a book the gospel preached by him [Paul]. Afterwards, John, the disciple of the Lord, who also leaned upon his breast, he likewise published a gospel while he dwelt at Ephesus in Asia. And all these have delivered to us, that there is one God, the Maker of the heaven and the earth, declared by the law and the prophets, and one Christ, the Son of God. And he who does not assent to them, despiseths indeed those who knew the mind of the Lord: but he despiseth also Christ himself the Lord, and he despiseth likewise the Father, and is selfcondemned, resisting and opposing his own salvation, as all heretics do.'

That part of this passage, which particularly concerns the four evangelists severally, is cited by Eusebius: the rest is only in the old Latin version.

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2. Nor can there be more or fewer gospels than these. For as there are four regions of the world in which we live, and four catholic spirits, and the church is spread all over the earth, and the gospel is the pillar and foundation of the church, and the spirit of life; in like manner was it fit it should have four pillars, breathing on all sides incorruption, and refreshing mankind. Whence it is manifest, that the Word, the former of all things, who sits upon the

1 Μετα δε την τετων εξοδον, Μαρκος ὁ μαθητης και ἑρμηνευτης Πετρά, και αυτος τα ύπο Πετρε κηρυσσομενα εγγράφως ήμιν παραδέδωκε και Λεκας δε ὁ ακόλεθος Παύλε, το ὑπ' εκείνε κηρυσσομενον ευαγγελιον εν βιβλιῳ κατεθετο. Spernit quidem participes Domino. h H. E. l. v. c. 8. 'Neque autem plura numero quam hæc sunt, neque pauciora, capit esse evangelia, &c. Lib. 3. cap. xi. sect. 8. [Apud Grabe, p. 221.]

cherubim, and upholds all things, having appeared to men, has given us a gospel of a fourfold character, but joined in one spirit.- The gospel according to John declares his primary and glorious generation from the Father: “In the beginning was the Word."--But the gospel according to Luke, being of a priestly character, begins with Zacharias the priest offering incense to God.— Matthew relates his generation, which is according to man: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”—Mark begins from the prophetic Spirit, which came down from above to men, saying: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in Esaias the prophet.

In these passages we see the number of gospels owned by Irenæus, and the names of the writers of them, and sufficient particulars concerning them, to satisfy us, he means the very same books of the gospels which we now have. Nevertheless, I shall take a passage or two more concerning each of these gospels.

3. The first passage will relate to Matthew's gospel from a fragment' of Irenæus.

'The gospel according to Matthew was written to the Jews; for they earnestly desired a Messiah of the seed of David and Matthew having also the same desire to a yet greater degree, strove by all means to give them full satisfaction, that Christ was of the seed of David; wherefore he began with his genealogy.'

4. Wherefore also Mark, the interpreter and follower of Peter, makes this the beginning of his evangelic writing: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God." And in the end of the [his] gospel Mark says: "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.""

5. But if any one rejects Luke, as if he did not know the truth, he will be convicted of throwing away the gospel, of which he professeth to be a disciple. For there are many, and those very necessary parts of the gospel,

* Though Irenæus does not in this account of St. Luke's gospel mention his genealogy of our Lord, which is in ch. iii. 23, to the end; he owned it, and has particularly observed, that St. Luke carried up our Saviour's genealogy to Adam. L. 3. cap. 22. sect. 3. [al. cap. 33.]

p. 471.

E. Possini Catena Patrum in Matthæum; apud Massuet, p. 347. Grabe, m L. 3. c. x. sect. 6. [ed. Grabe, p. 217.] n L. 3. c. 14. sect. 3. [Grabe, p. 235.]

Because the heretics, with whom Irenæus there disputes, owned the whole, or part at least, of that gospel.

which we know by his means: as, Luke i. ii. iii; the birth of John, the history of Zacharias, and the visit of the angel to Mary, and the descent of the angels to the shepherds, and the things said by them, and the testimony of Anna and Simeon to Christ, and that at the age of twelve years he was left behind at Jerusalem, and the baptism of John, and the age of our Lord when he was baptized, and that this was done in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar, and what he said in his sermon to the rich : "Woe unto you that are rich, for ye receive your consolation," Luke vi. 24, 25, 26. All these things we know from Luke only. And we have learned from him many actions of our Lord, which all receive: as the great multitude of fishes which they who were with Peter inclosed, when at the command of the Lord they cast their nets; and the woman with the infirmity of eighteen years, who was cured on the sabbathday, ch. xiii. 11; and the man with the dropsy, whom the Lord healed on the sabbath-day, xiv. 2, 3; and how he defended his healing on that day; and how he taught his disciples not to covet the chief seats; and that we ought to invite the poor and infirm, who cannot recompense us again, 7-13; and of him who knocked at the door in the night time for bread, and obtained it, because of his importunity, xi. 8; and that, sitting at table at the house of a pharisee, a woman that was a sinner kissed his feet, and anointed him with ointment, vii. 36; and all that, for her sake, the Lord said concerning two debtors; and the parable of the rich man that hoarded up his increase, xii. 16; to whom also it was said, "This night shall thy soul be required of thee: then whose shall these things be, which thou hast provided?" As also the parable of the rich man, that was clothed in purple, and fared sumptuously, and the beggar Lazarus, xvi. 19; and the answer which he made his disciples, when they said to him, "Increase our faith," xvii. 5; and the conversation with Zaccheus the publican, xix. 1; and concerning the pharisee and the publican who worshipped together at the temple, xviii. 10; and the ten lepers whom he healed at the same time in the way, xvii. 12; and that he commanded the lame and the blind to be brought to the wedding from the streets and the lanes, xiv. 21; and the parable of the judge who feared not God, whom the widow's importunity compelled to avenge her, xviii. 1; and of the fig-tree in the vineyard, which bore no fruit, xiii. 6. And many other things there are to P That is, parts of his gospel received by all, heretics as well as catholics Et plurimos actus Domini per hunc didicimus, quibus omnes utuntur.'

be found in Luke alone, which [things] Marcion and Valentinus made use of: and beside all these things, after his resurrection, what he said to the disciples in the way, and how he was made known to them in breaking of bread, xxiv. 35.

6. There is likewise a passage relating to John's gospel, representing the design of it, which may deserve to be transcribed.

'John, the disciple of the Lord, being desirous by declaring the gospel to root out the error that had been sown in the minds of men by Cerinthus, and a good while before by those who are called Nicolaitans,- -that he might confute them, and satisfy all, that there is one God who made all things by his word; and not, as they say, one who made the world, and another the Father of the Lord; and one the Son of the Creator, and another from the super-celestial places, even Christ, who they say also continued ever impassible, who descended upon Jesus the Son of the Creator, and fled away again into his pleroma' [or fulness] :the disciple therefore of the Lord, willing at once to cut off these errors, and leave a rule of truth in the church; that there is one God Almighty, who by his word made all things visible and invisible; declaring likewise, that by the Word, by which God finished the creation, by the same also he bestowed salvation upon those men who are in the creation; he thus begins in his doctrine, which is according to the gospel: "In the beginning was the Word," John i. 1-5.

So far of the gospels.

III. The Acts of the Apostles is a book much quoted by Irenæus, as written by Luke," the disciple and companion of the apostles. There are few things recorded in that book, which have not been mentioned by Irenæus. I shall Pute put down one passage, giving a general account of all the latter part of it.

1. And that Luke was inseparable from Paul, and his fellow-worker in the gospel, he himself shows, not boasting of it indeed, but obliged to it for the sake of truth. "When Barnabas, and John, who was called Mark, separated from Paul, and they sailed to Cyprus, Acts xv. 39, we came to Troas and when Paul had seen in a dream a man of Macedonia, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help

a L. 3. cap. xi. sect. 3. Massuet, al. cap. xi. et apud Grabe, p. 218. Simon-de quo discipulus et sectator apostolorum Lucas ait: Vir quidam autem nomine Simon.' Acts viii. 9. et seq. Lib. i. cap. 23. sect. 1. [al. cap. 20.] L. 3. cap. 14. init.

us, Paul; immediately," says he, "we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering, that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them: therefore, loosing from Troas, we came in a straight course to Samothracia," ch. xvi. 8, 9, 10, 11. And then he carefully relates the rest of their course to Philippi, and how they began their preaching there. "And we sat down," says he," and spake to the women that resorted thither," [the place of prayer,] ver. 13; relating also who believed, and how many. And again he says: "And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came to Troas, where we abode seven days," ch. xx. 6. And the other things he relates, while he was with Paul, xxi. xxvii. xxviii; mentioning exactly the places, and citics, and number of days, until they went up to Jerusalem; and what things happened there to Paul; how he was sent bound to Rome, and the name of the centurion that took charge of him, and the signs of the ship, and how they were shipwrecked, and in what island they were saved, and how courteously they were received, Paul healing the chief man of the island; and how they sailed from thence to Puteoli, and from thence arrived at Rome, and how long they staid at Rome: at all which things he was present, and relates them with fidelity, and without ostentation. -And that he was not only a companion, but also a fellow-labourer of the apostles, and especially of Paul, Paul himself has declared in his epistles. For this he quotes the words of 2 Tim. iv. 9, 10, 11, and Colos. iv. 14; and presently after he quotes also Acts xx. 17.

2. Beside these, and many other things in behalf of Luke, he argues with those who disowned the authority of Paul, and yet owned Luke's gospel, that they must of necessity own the Acts, and consequently Paul's authority.

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'Nor can they,' says he, pretend that Paul is not an apostle, when he was chosen to this end: nor can they show that Luke is not to be credited, who has related to us the truth with the greatest exactness. [He refers to Acts ix. 5, 15, 16; containing an account of Paul's conversion and vocation, which he had just before quoted expressly.] And possibly God has for this reason so ordered it, that many parts of the gospel should be declared to us" by Luke, which all are under a necessity of receiving; that so all might receive likewise his subsequent testimony, which he has given concerning the acts and doctrine of the L. 3. cap. 15. in. " See the passage, p. 171-173.