ch a character as the Saviour it reveals; no mere
man could have contrived such a system of mercy as that which it
announces. The New Testament is always on the side of whatsoever is
just, and honest, and lovely, and of good report; it glorifies God; it
alarms the sinner; it comforts the saint. "The words of the Lord are
pure words, as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven
times." [186:1]

The excellence of the New Testament is displayed to singular advantage
when contrasted with those uninspired productions of nearly the same
date which emanated from the companions of the apostles. The only
genuine document of this nature which has come down to us, and which
appeared in the first century,[186:2] is an epistle to the Corinthians.
It was prepared immediately after the Domitian persecution, or about
A.D. 96,[186:3] with a view to heal certain divisions which had sprung
up in the religious community to which it is addressed; and, though
written in the name of the Church of Rome, there is no reason to doubt
that it is the composition of Clement, who was then at the head of the
Roman presbytery. The advice which it administers is most judicious; and
the whole letter breathes the peaceful spirit of a devoted Christian
pastor. But it contains passages which furnish conclusive evidence that
it has no claims whatever to inspiration; and its illustration of the
doctrine of the resurrection is in itself more than sufficient to
demonstrate that it could not have been dictated under any supernatural
guidance. "There is," says Clement,[186:4] "a certain bird called the
phoenix. Of this there is never but one at a time, and that lives five
hundred years: and when the time of its dissolution draws near that it
must die, it makes itself a nest of frankincense, and myrrh, and other
spices, into which, when its time is fulfilled, it enters and dies. But
its flesh putrefying breeds a certain worm which, being nourished with
the juice of the dead bird, brings forth feathers; and when it is grown
to a perfect state, it takes up the nest in which the bones of its
parent are, and carries it from Arabia into Egypt to a city called
Heliopolis; and flying in open day, in the sight of all men, lays it
upon the altar of the Sun, and so returns from whence it came. The
priests then search into the records of the time, and find that it
returned precisely at the end of five hundred years." [187:1]

In point of education the authors of the