our Gospels were at this early day
quoted as spoken by him; and not only so, but quoted with so little
question or consciousness of doubt about their being really his words,
as not even to mention, much less to canvass, the authority from which
they were taken:

"But remembering what the Lord said, teaching, Judge not, that ye be not
judged; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven; be ye merciful, that ye may
obtain mercy; with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again." (Matt. vii. 1, 2; v. 7; Luke vi. 37, 38.)

Supposing Polycarp to have had these words from the books in which we
now find them, it is manifest that these books were considered by him,
and, as he thought, considered by his readers, us authentic accounts of
Christ's discourses; and that that point was incontestible [sic].

The following is a decisive, though what we call a tacit reference to
St. Peter's speech in the Acts of the Apostles:--"whom God hath raised,
having loosed the pains of death." (Acts ii. 24.)

VI. Papias, (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 239.) a hearer of John, and
companion of Polycarp, as Irenaeus attests, and of that age, as all
agree, in a passage quoted by Eusebius, from a work now lost, expressly
ascribes the respective Gospels to Matthew and Mark; and in a manner
which proves that these Gospels must have publicly borne the names of
these authors at that time, and probably long before; for Papias does
not say that one Gospel was written by Matthew, and another by Mark;
but, assuming this as perfectly well known, he tells us from what
materials Mark collected his account, viz. from Peter's preaching, and
in what language Matthew wrote, viz. in Hebrew. Whether Papias was well
informed in this statement, or not; to the point for which I produce
this testimony, namely, that these books bore these names at this time,
his authority is complete.

The writers hitherto alleged had all lived and conversed with some of
the apostles. The works of theirs which remain are in general very short
pieces, yet rendered extremely valuable by their antiquity; and none,
short as they are, but what contain some important testimony to our
historical Scriptures.*

_________

* That the quotations are more thinly strewn in these than in the
writings of the next and of succeeding ages, is in a good measure
accounted for by the observation, that the Scriptures of the New
Testament had not yet, nor by their recency hardly could have, become a
gener