ys of Irenaeus, of the oral and written
tradition, and the deduction of the oral tradition through various
channels from the age of the apostles, which was then lately passed,
and, by consequence, the probability that the books truly delivered what
the apostles taught, is inferred also with strict regularity from
another passage of his works. "The tradition of the apostles," this
father saith, "hath spread itself over the whole universe; and all they
who search after the sources of truth will find this tradition to be
held sacred in every church, We might enumerate all those who have been
appointed bishops to these churches by the apostles, and all their
successors, up to our days. It is by this uninterrupted succession that
we have received the tradition which actually exists in the church, as
also the doctrines of truth, as it was preached by the apostles." (Iren.
in Haer. I. iii. c. 3.) The reader will observe upon this, that the same
Irenaeus, who is now stating the strength and uniformity of the
tradition, we have before seen recognizing, in the fullest manner, the
authority of the written records; from which we are entitled to
conclude, that they were then conformable to each other.

I have said that the testimony of Irenaeus in favour of our Gospels is
exclusive of all others. I allude to a remarkable passage in his works,
in which, for some reasons sufficiently fanciful, he endeavours to show
that there could he neither more nor fewer Gospels than four. With his
argument we have no concern. The position itself proves that four, and
only four, Gospels were at that time publicly read and acknowledged.
That these were our Gospels, and in the state in which we now have them,
is shown from many other places of this writer beside that which we have
already alleged. He mentions how Matthew begins his Gospel, bow Mark
begins and ends his, and their supposed reasons for so doing. He
enumerates at length the several passages of Christ's history in Luke,
which are not found in any of the other evangelists. He states the
particular design with which Saint John composed his Gospel, and
accounts for the doctrinal declarations which precede the narrative.

To the book of the Acts of the Apostles, its author, and credit, the
testimony of Irenaeus is no less explicit. Referring to the account of
Saint Paul's conversion and vocation, in the ninth chapter of that book,
"Nor can they," says he, meaning the parties with whom he argu