ese, or included in the same
character with these. This writer observes, acutely enough, that "the
disposition of the clothes in the sepulchre, the napkin that was about
our Saviour's head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped
together in a place by itself, did not bespeak the terror and hurry of
thieves, and therefore refutes the story of the body being
stolen." (Lardner, Cred. vol. ix. p. 163.)

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, remarked various readings in the Latin copies
of the New Testament, and appeals to the original Greek;

And Jerome, towards the conclusion of this century, put forth an edition
of the New Testament in Latin, corrected, at least as to the Gospels, by
Greek copies, and "those (he says) ancient."

Lastly, Chrysostom, it is well known, delivered and published a great
many homilies, or sermons, upon the Gospels and the Acts of the
Apostles.

It is needless to bring down this article lower, but it is of importance
to add, that there is no example of Christian writers of the first three
centuries composing comments upon any other books than those which are
found in the New Testament, except the single one of Clement of
Alexandria commenting upon a book called the Revelation of Peter.

Of the ancient versions of the New Testament, one of the most valuable
is the Syriac. Syriac was the language of Palestine when Christianity
was there first established. And although the books of Scripture were
written in Greek, for the purpose of a more extended circulation than
within the precincts of Judea, yet it is probable that they would soon
be translated into the vulgar language of the country where the religion
first prevailed. Accordingly, a Syriac translation is now extant, all
along, so far as it appears, used by the inhabitants of Syria, bearing
many internal marks of high antiquity, supported in its pretensions by
the uniform tradition of the East, and confirmed by the discovery of
many very ancient manuscripts in the libraries of Europe, It is about
200 years since a bishop of Antioch sent a copy of this translation into
Europe to be printed; and this seems to be the first time that the
translation became generally known to these parts of the world. The
bishop of Antioch's Testament was found to contain all our books, except
the second epistle of Peter, the second and third of John, and the
Revelation; which books, however, have since been discovered in that
language in some ancient manuscripts of