mselves, unless their quotations or
allusions are very express and clear. The question, then, here is,
whether Clement in these places refers to words of Christ, written and
recorded, or whether he reminds the Corinthians of words of Christ,
which he and they might have heard from the Apostles, or other
eye-and-ear-witnesses of our Lord. Le Clerc, in his dissertation on the
four Gospels, is of opinion that Clement refers to written words of our
Lord, which were in the hands of the Corinthians, and well known to
them. On the other hand, I find, Bishop Pearson thought, that Clement
speaks of words which he had heard from the Apostles themselves, or
their disciples. I certainly make no question but the three first
Gospels were writ before this time. And I am well satisfied that Clement
might refer to our written Gospels, though he does not exactly agree
with them in expression. But whether he does refer to them is not easy
to determine concerning a man who, very probably, knew these things
before they were committed to writing; and, even after they were so,
might continue to speak of them, in the same manner he had been wont to
do, as things he was well informed of, without appealing to the
Scriptures themselves" ("Credibility," pt. II., vol. i., pp. 68-70).
Canon Westcott, after arguing that the Apostolic Fathers are much
influenced by the Pauline Epistles, goes on to remark: "Nothing has been
said hitherto of the coincidences between the Apostolic Fathers and the
Canonical Gospels. From the nature of the case, casual coincidences of
language cannot be brought forward in the same manner to prove the use
of a history as of a letter. The same facts and words, especially if
they be recent and striking, may be preserved in several narratives.
References in the sub-apostolic age to the discourses or actions of our
Lord, as we find them recorded in the Gospels, show, as far as they go,
that what the Gospels relate was then held to be true; but it does not
necessarily follow that they were already in use, and were the actual
source of the passages in question. On the contrary, the mode in which
Clement refers to our Lord's teaching--'the Lord said,' not
'saith'--seems to imply that he was indebted to tradition, and not to
any written accounts, for words most closely resembling those which are
still found in our Gospels. The main testimony of the Apostolic Fathers
is, therefore, to the substance, and not to the authenticity, of the