wrote his voluminous works; A.D. 180 is, therefore, an almost impossibly early date, but it is, at any rate, the very earliest that can be pretended for the testimony now to be examined.  The works against heresies were probably written, the first three about A.D. 190, and the remainder about A.D. 198.  Irenaeus is the first Christian writer who mentions four Gospels; he says:—­“Matthew produced his Gospel, written among the Hebrews, in their own dialect, whilst Peter and Paul proclaimed the Gospel and founded the church at Rome.  After the departure of these, Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, also transmitted to us in writing what had been preached by him.  And Luke, the companion of Paul, committed to writing the Gospel preached by him.  Afterwards John, the disciple of our Lord, the same that lay upon his bosom, also published the Gospel, whilst he was yet at Ephesus in Asia” (Quoted by Eusebius, bk. v., ch. 8, from 3rd bk. of “Refutation and Overthrow of False Doctrine,” by Irenaeus).

The reasons which compelled Irenaeus to believe that there must be neither less nor more than four Gospels in the Church are so convincing that they deserve to be here put on record.  “It is not possible that the Gospels can be either more or fewer in number than they are.  For, since there are four zones [sometimes translated ‘corners’ or ‘quarters’] of the world in which we live, and four Catholic spirits, while the Church is scattered throughout all the world, and the pillar and grounding of the Church is the Gospel and the spirit of life; it is fitting she should have four pillars, breathing out immortality on every side, and vivifying men afresh.  From which fact it is evident that the Word, the Artificer of all, He that sitteth upon the Cherubim, and contains all things, He who was manifested to men, has given us the Gospel under four aspects, but bound together by one Spirit....  For the Cherubim too were four-faced, and their faces were images of the dispensation of the Son of God....  And, therefore, the Gospels are in accord with these things, among which Christ Jesus is seated” ("Irenaeus,” bk. iii., chap, xi., sec. 8).  The Rev. Dr. Giles, writing on Justin Martyr, the great Christian apologist, candidly says:  “The very names of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are never mentioned by him—­do not occur once in all his works.  It is, therefore, childish to say that he has quoted from our existing Gospels, and so proves their existence, as they now are, in his own time....  He has nowhere remarked, like those Fathers of the Church who lived several ages after him, that there are four Gospels of higher importance and estimation than any others....  All this was the creation of a later age, but it is wanting in Justin Martyr, and the defect leads us to the conclusion that our four Gospels had not then emerged from obscurity, but were still, if in being, confounded with a larger mass of Christian traditions which, about this very time, were beginning to be set down in writing” ("Christian Records,” pp. 71, 72).