, last of all, the Gospel according to John."
Extract from Origen's first book of his commentaries on St. Matthew,
quoted by Eusebius (vi. 25)

As regards Cyprian, the following quotation will suffice:--

"The Church, setting forth the likeness of Paradise, includes within
her walls fruit-bearing trees, whereof that which does not bring
forth good fruit is cut off and is cast into the fire. These trees
she waters with four rivers, that is, with the four Gospels,
wherewith, by a celestial inundation, she bestows the grace of
saying baptism." Cyprian, Letter lxxii. to Jubaianus.

As regards Hippolytus I have counted above fifty references to St.
Matthew and forty to St. John, in his work on the "Refutation of
Heresies," and "Fragments." I append in a note a passage taken from his
comment on the Second Psalm, preserved to us by Theodoret. The reader
will be able to judge from it from what sources he derived his knowledge
of Christ. I give it rather for its devotional spirit than its evidence
for the four. [126:1]

We now come to the conclusion of the second century. Between the years
180 and 200 or 210 A.D., there flourished three writers of whom we
possess somewhat voluminous remains. Irenaeus, who was born about 140 at
the latest, who was in youth the disciple of Polycarp, who was himself
the disciple of St. John. Irenaeus wrote his work against heresies about
the year 180, a little after he had succeeded Pothinus as Bishop of
Lyons, and was martyred at the beginning of the next century (202).

Clement of Alexandria, the date of whose birth or death is uncertain,
flourished long before the end of the second century, for he became head
of the catechetical school of Alexandria about the year 190.

Tertullian was born about 150, was converted to Christianity about 185,
was admitted to the priesthood in 192, and adopted the opinions of
Montanus about the end of the century.

I shall first of all give the testimony of these three writers to the
universal reception of the Four Gospels by the Church, and consider to
what time previous to their own day their testimony upon such a subject
must, of necessity, reach.

First of all, Irenaeus, in a well-known passage, asserts that--

"It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in
number than they are."

He then refers to the four zones of the earth, and the four principal
winds, and remarks that, in accordance wi