That they were publicly read and expounded in the religious
assemblies of the early Christians.

VI. That commentaries were written upon them, harmonies formed out of
them, different copies carefully collated, and versions of them made
into different languages.

VII. That they were received by Christians of different sects, by many
heretics as well as Catholics, and usually appealed to by both sides in
the controversies which arose in those days.

VIII. That the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles
of Saint Paul, the first epistle of John, and the first of-Peter, were
received without doubt by those who doubted concerning the other books
which are included in our present canon.

IX. That the Gospels were attacked by the early adversaries of
Christianity, as books containing the accounts upon which the religion
was founded.

X. That formal catalogues of authentic Scriptures were published; in all
which our present sacred histories were included.

XI. That these propositions cannot be affirmed of any other books
claiming to be books of Scripture; by which are meant those books which
are commonly called apocryphal books of the New Testament.

SECTION I.

The historical books of the New Testament, meaning thereby the four
Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, are quoted, or alluded to, by a
series of Christian writers, beginning with those who were contemporary
with the apostles, or who immediately followed them, and proceeding in
close and regular succession from their time to the present.

The medium of proof stated in this proposition is, of all others, the
most unquestionable, the least liable to any practices of fraud, and is
not diminished by the lapse of ages. Bishop Burnet, in the History of
his Own Times, inserts various extracts from Lord Clarendon's History.
One such insertion is a proof that Lord Clarendon's History was extant
at the time when Bishop Burnet wrote, that it had been read by Bishop
Burnet, that it was received by Bishop Burnet as a work of Lord
Clarendon, and also regarded by him as an authentic account of the
transactions which it relates; and it will be a proof of these points a
thousand years hence, or as long as the books exist. Quintilian having
quoted as Cicero's, (Quint, lib. xl. c. l.) that well known trait of
dissembled vanity:--"Si quid est in me ingenii, Judices, quod sentio
quam sit exiguum;"--the quotation would be strong evidence, were there
a