four_ canonical
gospels is decisive. In its present form, it opens with the end
of a sentence, the beginning of which is lost. It then goes on
to say, "_The third gospel according to Luke_." After mentioning
various particulars concerning Luke, as that he was a physician
whom Paul had taken with him, that he did not himself see the
Lord in the flesh, etc., it adds, "_The fourth of the gospels,
that of John, of the number of the disciples_," to which it
appends a traditional account of the circumstances of its
composition. With the truth or falsehood of this account we have
at present no concern; the important fact is that this very
ancient canon recognizes the existence of our four canonical
gospels.

12. The heretical sects of the second century furnish testimony to the
genuineness of our canonical gospels which is of the most weighty and
decisive character. Though some of them rejected certain books of the
New Testament and mutilated others, it was on doctrinal, not on critical
grounds. Had they attempted to disprove on historic grounds the
genuineness of the rejected portions of Scripture, it is certain that
the church fathers, who wrote against them at such length, would have
noticed their arguments. The fact that they did not, is conclusive proof
that no such attempt was made; but from the position which the leaders
of these heretical sects occupied, it is certain that, could the
genuineness of the canonical gospels, or any one of them, have been
denied on historic grounds, the denial would have been made.

_Marcion_, one of the most distinguished leaders of those who
separated themselves from the orthodox church, came to Rome in
the second quarter of the second century. He separated
Christianity from all connection with Judaism, making the
Jehovah of the Old Testament a different being from the God of
the New Testament. His gospel, called by the ancients the gospel
of Marcion, is admitted to have been a mutilated copy of Luke's
gospel. Of course it became necessary that he should reject the
first two chapters of this gospel, (which alone he received,)
since they contain our Lord's genealogy in the line of Abraham
and David, and should otherwise alter it to suit his views. On
the same grounds, he altered the epistles of Paul also. That
Marcion was not ignorant of the other three gospels, but
rejected them, is