ament," Westcott admits that "it
is not easy to over-rate the difficulties which beset any inquiry into
the early versions of the New Testament" ("On the Canon," p. 231). He
speaks of the "comparatively scanty materials and vague or conflicting
traditions" (Ibid). The "original versions of the East and West" are
carefully examined by him; the oldest is the "Peshito," in Syriac--i.e.,
Aramaean, or Syro-Chaldaic. This must, of course, be only a translation
of the Testament, if it be true that the original books were written in
Greek. The time when this version was formed is unknown, and Westcott
argues that "the very obscurity which hangs over its origin is a proof
of its venerable age" (Ibid, p. 240); and he refers it to "the first
half of the second century," while acknowledging that he does so
"without conclusive authority" (Ibid). The Peshito omits the second and
third epistles of John, second of Peter, that of Jude, and the
Apocalypse. The origin of the Western version, in Latin, is quite as
obscure as that of the Syriac; and it is also incomplete, compared with
the present Canon, omitting the epistle of James and the second of Peter
(Ibid, p. 254). All the evidence so laboriously gathered together by the
learned Canon proves our proposition to demonstration. But, it is
admitted on all hands, that "it is impossible to assign any certain time
when a collection of these books, either by the Apostles, or by any
council of inspired or learned men, near their time, was made.... The
matter is too certain to need much to be said of it" (Jones "On the
Canon," vol. i, p. 7). Jones adds that he hopes to confute "these
specious objections ... in the fourth part of this book," in which he
endeavours to prove the Gospels and Acts to be _genuine_, so that it
does not much matter when they were collected together. In the time of
Eusebius the Canon was still unsettled, as he ranks among the disputed
and spurious works, the epistles of James and Jude, second of Peter,
second and third of John, and the Apocalypse ("Eccles. Hist.," bk. iii.,
chap. 25). It is not necessary to offer any further proof in support of
our position, _that it is not known where, when, by whom, the canonical
writings were selected._

D. _That before about_ A.D. 180 _there is no trace of_ FOUR _gospels
among the Christians_. The first step we take in attacking the four
canonical gospels, apart from the writings of the New Testament as a
whole, is to show that th