ls the books,
"Memoirs composed by the Apostles;" "Memoirs composed by the Apostles
and their Companions;" which descriptions, the latter especially,
exactly suit with the titles which the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles
now bear.

VIII. Hegesippus (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 314.) came about thirty
years after Justin. His testimony is remarkable only for this
particular; that he relates of himself that, travelling from Palestine
to Rome, he visited, on his journey, many bishops; and that, "in every
succession, and in every city, the same doctrine is taught, which the
Law and the Prophets, and the Lord teacheth." This is an important
attestation, from good authority, and of high antiquity. It is generally
understood that by the word "Lord," Hegesippus intended some writing or
writings, containing the teaching of Christ; in which sense alone the
term combines with the other term "Law and Prophets," which denote
writings; and together with them admit of the verb "teacheth" in the
present tense. Then, that these writings were some or all of the books
of the New Testament, is rendered probable from hence, that in the
fragments of his works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a writer
of the ninth century, enough, though it be little, is left to show, that
Hegesippus expressed divers thing in the style of the Gospels, and of
the Acts of the Apostles; that he referred to the history in the second
chapter of Matthew, and recited a text of that Gospel as spoken by our
Lord.

IX. At this time, viz. about the year 170, the churches of Lyons and
Vienne, in France, sent a relation of the sufferings of their martyrs to
the churches of Asia and Phrygia. (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 332.) The
epistle is preserved entire by Eusebius. And what carries in some
measure the testimony of these churches to a higher age, is, that they
had now for their bishop, Pothinus, who was ninety years old, and whose
early life consequently must have immediately joined on with the times
of the apostles. In this epistle are exact references to the Gospels of
Luke and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles; the form of reference
the same as in all the preceding articles. That from Saint John is in
these words: "Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord, that
whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service." (John xvi.
2.)

X. The evidence now opens upon us full and clear. Irenaeus (Lardner,
vol. i. p. 344.) succeeded Pothinus a