Gospels" ("On the Canon," pp. 51, 52). An examination of the Apostolic
Fathers gives us little testimony as to "the substance of the Gospels;"
but the whole passage is here given to show how much Canon Westcott,
writing in defence of the Canon, finds himself obliged to give up of the
position occupied by earlier apologists. Dr. Giles agrees with the
justice of these remarks of Lardner and Westcott. He writes: "The
sayings of Christ were, no doubt, treasured up like household jewels by
his disciples and followers. Why, then, may we not refer the quotation
of Christ's words, occurring in the Apostolical Fathers, to an origin of
this kind? If we examine a few of those quotations, the supposition,
just stated, will expand into reality.... The same may be said of every
single sentence found in any of the Apostolical Fathers, which, on first
sight, might be thought to be a decided quotation from one of the
Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. It is impossible to
deny the truth of this observation; for we see it confirmed by the fact
that the Apostolical Fathers do actually quote Moses, and other old
Testament writers, by name--'Moses hath said,' 'but Moses says,'
etc.--in numerous passages. But we nowhere meet with the words, 'Matthew
hath said in his Gospel,' 'John hath said,' etc. They always quote, not
the words of the Evangelists, but the words of Christ himself directly,
which furnishes the strongest presumption that, though the sayings of
Christ were in general vogue, yet the evangelical histories, into which
they were afterwards embodied, were not then in being. But the converse
of this view of the case leads us to the same conclusion. The
Apostolical Fathers quote sayings of Christ which are not found in our
Gospels.... There is no proof that our New Testament was in existence
during the lives of the Apostolical Fathers, who, therefore, could not
make citations out of books which they had never seen" ("Christian
Records," pp. 51-53). "There is no evidence that they [the four Gospels]
existed earlier than the middle of the second century, for they are not
named by any writer who lived before that time" (Ibid, p. 56). In
searching for evidence of the existence of the Gospels during the
earlier period of the Church's history, Christian apologists have
hitherto been content to seize upon a phrase here and there somewhat
resembling a phrase in the canonical Gospels, and to put that forward as
a proof that the