eir situation, to obtain
true intelligence, and were likely to deliver an honest account of what
they knew, but were persons not distinguished in the history by
extraordinary marks of notice or commendation. Of the apostles, I hardly
know any one of whom less is said than of Matthew, or of whom the little
that is said is less calculated to magnify his character. Of Mark,
nothing is said in the Gospels; and what is said of any person of that
name in the Acts, and in the epistles, in no part bestows praise or
eminence upon him. The name of Luke is mentioned only in St Paul's
epistles,* and that very transiently. The judgment, therefore, which
assigned these writings to these authors proceeded, it may be presumed,
upon proper knowledge and evidence, and not upon a voluntary choice of
names.

VI. Christian writers and Christian churches appear to have soon arrived
at a very general agreement upon the subject, and that without the
interposition of any public authority. When the diversity of opinion
which prevailed, and prevails among Christians in other points, is
considered, their concurrence in the canon of Scripture is remarkable,
and of great weight, especially as it seems to have been the result of
private and free inquiry. We have no knowledge of any interference of
authority in the question before the council of Laodicea in the year
363. Probably the decree of this council rather declared than regulated
the public judgment, or, more properly speaking, the judgment of some
neighbouring churches; the council itself consisting of no more than
thirty or forty bishops of Lydia and the adjoining countries.+ Nor does
its authority seem to have extended further; for we find numerous
Christian writers, after this time, discussing the question, "What books
were entitled to be received as Scripture," with great freedom, upon
proper grounds of evidence, and without any reference to the decision at
Laodicea.

_________

* Col. iv. 14. 2Tim. iv. 11. Philem. 24.
+ Lardner, Cred. vol. viii. P.291, et seq.
_________

These considerations are not to be neglected: but of an argument
concerning the genuineness of ancient writings, the substance,
undoubtedly, and strength, is ancient testimony.

This testimony it is necessary to exhibit somewhat in detail; for when
Christian advocates merely tell us that we have the same reason for
believing the Gospels to be written by the evangelists whose names they
bear as we have for belie