derived for the most part, he tells ue, from certain written recorris whioh, he said, rested on apostolio authority, and were used and read in the publio assemblies of Christiane. He never quotes these records by name, but refers to them simply as "memoirs of the apostles " ( &1rop.V1Jp.onvµn:ra Twv &1rouT6MJJv); two of these, he says, were written by apostles, two by their followers. His references are for the most part connected with the t.eaching rather than with the works of Jesus. He weaves into the tapestry of his story the narratives especially of SS. Matthew and Luke, quoting often the very words of the evangelists. In his' Apology' Westcott reckons nearly fifty allusions to the gospel history. In the 'Dialogue' about seventy facts peculiar to St. Luke's narrative are introduced by Justin; for instance, the account of the sweat which dropped as blood from the Redeemer in Gethsemane, anr1 the Master's prayer for the passing of "this cup." These "memoirs " which JUBtin uses so freely, and which he is careful to state were read in the weekly services of the Christians, were, in the estimation of the Church of his time (which was roughly the middle years of the second century), evidently ranked with the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament; and these memoirs of the apostles, it is perfectly certain, were the Gospels we know severally as the Gospels of SS. Matthew, Luke, and Mark. AB Justin wrote before and after the year of our Lord 150, we have traced St. Luke's Gospel as an authoritative sacred document a co11siderable way1,upwards towards the source. The testimony of the early heretical schools is very useful to us here, and puts us a further step backwards. About A.D. 140 Marcion, the son of a Bishop of Sinope, claimed to reproduce in its original simplicity the Gospel of St. Paul. He took for his purpose the Gospel of St. 'Luke ( which evidently, when Maroion taught, was a universally acknowledged book of Holy Scripture) and ten Epistles of St. Paul. The text of the Gospel and Epistles Marcion altered to suit his own peculiar views.1 Valentinua, the author of the famous heresy which bears his name, came to Rome, Irenams tells us, in the episcopate of Hyginus, and taught there from about A,D, 139 to 160. In the fra,,,<TJJ1enta of his writings which are preserved, he cites, among other New Testament bovks, the GoBpel of St. Luke as Scripture. 9 Herackon, the familiar friend of the heresiarch just alluded to, himself the great Valenti.nian commentator, has left commentariet1 on St. Luke and St. John, a.nd fragmentB of these are still in existence. Clement of Alex- andria refers to this commentary on St. Luke, which must havll been put out 1
before the middle of the second century.• Oerdo, an heretical teacher who lived still nearer the beginning of thi,,
• or. Westcott on the Canon, 'The Early Heretioe,' eh. iv.; Tertullia.n, ' A.d v, Mau:.,' v.; • Epiph. Hier.,' xlii • Cf. Weatoott on the Canon, eh. iv.: Tertullian, 'De Prtescr. llmr.' • ()f. Wc■tooU on the Co.non, eh. iv; Ollllll. Alex.,' Strolllata,· iv. 9, § 73. Iv INTRODUCTION TO