nt of written
matter--occupying a very few pages in all--were extracted accidentally
from the current theological literature of our own day, the chances,
unless I am mistaken, would be strongly against our finding so many
indications of the use of this Gospel. In every one of the writers, from
Polycarp and Papias to Polycrates, we have observed phenomena which bear
witness directly or indirectly, and with different degrees of
distinctness, to its recognition. It is quite possible for critical
ingenuity to find a reason for discrediting each instance in turn. An
objector may urge in one case, that the writing itself is a forgery; in
a second, that the particular passage is an interpolation; in a third,
that the supposed quotation is the original and the language of the
Evangelist the copy; in a fourth, that the incident or saying was not
deduced from this Gospel but from some apocryphal work, containing a
parallel narrative. By a sufficient number of assumptions, which lie
beyond the range of verification, the evidence may be set aside. But the
early existence and recognition of the Fourth Gospel is the one simple
postulate which explains all the facts. The law of gravitation accounts
for the various phenomena of motion, the falling of a stone, the jet of
a fountain, the orbits of the planets, and so forth. It is quite
possible for any one, who is so disposed, to reject this explanation of
nature. Provided that he is allowed to postulate a new force for every
new fact with which he is confronted, he has nothing to fear. He will
then
"gird the sphere
With centric and eccentric scribbled o'er,
Cycle and epicycle, orb in orb,"

happy in his immunity. But the other theory will prevail nevertheless by
reason of its simplicity.

VIII. THE CHURCHES OF GAUL.

[AUGUST, 1876.]

In the preceding papers I have investigated the testimony borne by the
Churches of Asia Minor to the Canonical Gospels, and more especially to
the Fourth Evangelist. The peculiar value of this testimony is due to
the close personal relations of these communities with the latest
surviving Apostles, more particularly with St John. At the same time I
took occasion incidentally to remark on their attitude towards St Paul
and his writings, because an assumed antagonism between the Apostle of
the Gentiles and the Twelve has been adopted by a modern school of
critics as the basis for a reconstruction of early Chr