ny doubt, that the oration, which opens with this address, actually
came from Cicero's pen. These instances, however simple, may serve to
point out to a reader who is little accustomed to such researches the
nature and value of the argument.

The testimonies which we have to bring forward under this proposition
are the following:--

I. There is extant an epistle ascribed to Barnabas,* the companion of
Paul. It is quoted as the epistle of Barnabas, by Clement of Alexandria,
A.D. CXCIV; by Origen, A.D. CCXXX. It is mentioned by Eusebius, A.D.
CCCXV, and by Jerome, A.D. CCCXCII, as an ancient work in their time,
bearing the name of Barnabas, and as well known and read amongst
Christians, though not accounted a part of Scripture. It purports to
have been written soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, during the
calamities which followed that disaster; and it bears the character of
the age to which it professes to belong.

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* Lardner, Cred. edit. 1755, vol. i. p. 23, et seq. The reader will
observe from the references, that the materials of these sections are
almost entirely extracted from Dr. Lardner's work; my office consisted
in arrangement and selection.
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In this epistle appears the following remarkable passage:--"Let us,
therefore, beware lest it come upon us, as it is written; There are many
called, few chosen." From the expression, "as it is written," we infer
with certainty, that at the time when the author of this epistle lived,
there was a book extant, well known to Christians, and of authority
amongst them, containing these words:--"Many are called, few chosen."
Such a book is our present Gospel of Saint Matthew, in which this text
is twice found, (Matt xx. 16; xxii. 14.) and is found in no other book
now known. There is a further observation to be made upon the terms of
the quotation. The writer of the epistle was a Jew. The phrase "it is
written" was the very form in which the Jews quoted their Scriptures. It
is not probable, therefore, that he would have used this phrase, and
without qualification, of any book but what had acquired a kind of
Scriptural authority. If the passage remarked in this ancient writing
had been found in one of Saint Paul's Epistles, it would have been
esteemed by every one a high testimony to Saint Matthew's Gospel. It
ought, therefore, to be remembered, that the writing in which it is
found was probably by very few years posterior to those of Saint Paul.