es, "show
that he is not to be credited, who has related to us the truth with the
greatest exactness." In another place, he has actually collected the
several texts, in which the writer of the history is represented as
accompanying Saint Paul; which leads him to deliver a summary of almost
the whole of the last twelve chapters of the book.

In an author thus abounding with references and allusions to the
Scriptures, there is not one to any apocryphal Christian writing
whatever. This is a broad line of distinction between our sacred books
and the pretensions of all others.

The force of the testimony of the period which we have considered is
greatly strengthened by the observation, that it is the testimony, and
the concurring testimony, of writers who lived in countries remote from
one another. Clement flourished at Rome, Ignatius at Antioch, Polycarp
at Smyrna, Justin Martyr in Syria, and Irenaeus in France.

XI. Omitting Athenagoras and Theophilus, who lived about this
time; (Lardner, vol. i. p. 400 & 422.) in the remaining works of the
former of whom are clear references to Mark and Luke; and in the works
of the latter, who was bishop of Antioch, the sixth in succession from
the apostles, evident allusions to Matthew and John, and probable
allusions to Luke (which, considering the nature of the compositions,
that they were addressed to heathen readers, is as much as could be
expected); observing also, that the works of two learned Christian
writers of the same age, Miltiades and Pantaenus, (Lardner, vol. i. p.413,
450.) are now lost: of which Miltiades Eusebius records, that his
writings "were monuments of zeal for the Divine Oracles;" and which
Pantaenus, as Jerome testifies, was a man of prudence and learning, both
in the Divine Scriptures and secular literature, and had left many
commentaries upon the Holy Scriptures then extant. Passing by these
without further remark, we come to one of the most voluminous of ancient
Christian writers, Clement of Alexandria (Lardner, vol. ii. p. 469.).
Clement followed Irenaeus at the distance of only sixteen years, and
therefore may be said to maintain the series of testimony in an
uninterrupted continuation.

In certain of Clement's works, now lost, but of which various parts are
recited by Eusebius, there is given a distinct account of the order in
which the four Gospels were written. The Gospels which contain the
genealogies were (he says) written first; Mark's next, at t