VIII.  Hegesippus (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 314.) came about thirty years after Justin.  His testimony is remarkable only for this particular; that he relates of himself that, travelling from Palestine to Rome, he visited, on his journey, many bishops; and that, “in every succession, and in every city, the same doctrine is taught, which the Law and the Prophets, and the Lord teacheth.”  This is an important attestation, from good authority, and of high antiquity.  It is generally understood that by the word “Lord,” Hegesippus intended some writing or writings, containing the teaching of Christ; in which sense alone the term combines with the other term “Law and Prophets,” which denote writings; and together with them admit of the verb “teacheth” in the present tense.  Then, that these writings were some or all of the books of the New Testament, is rendered probable from hence, that in the fragments of his works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a writer of the ninth century, enough, though it be little, is left to show, that Hegesippus expressed divers thing in the style of the Gospels, and of the Acts of the Apostles; that he referred to the history in the second chapter of Matthew, and recited a text of that Gospel as spoken by our Lord.

Ix.  At this time, viz. about the year 170, the churches of Lyons and Vienne, in France, sent a relation of the sufferings of their martyrs to the churches of Asia and Phrygia. (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 332.) The epistle is preserved entire by Eusebius.  And what carries in some measure the testimony of these churches to a higher age, is, that they had now for their bishop, Pothinus, who was ninety years old, and whose early life consequently must have immediately joined on with the times of the apostles.  In this epistle are exact references to the Gospels of Luke and John, and to the Acts of the Apostles; the form of reference the same as in all the preceding articles.  That from Saint John is in these words:  “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the Lord, that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth God service.” (John xvi. 2.)

X. The evidence now opens upon us full and clear.  Irenaeus (Lardner, vol. i. p. 344.) succeeded Pothinus as bishop of Lyons.  In his youth he had been a disciple of Polycarp, who was a disciple of John.  In the time in which he lived, he was distant not much more than a century from the publication of the Gospels; in his instruction only by one step separated from the persons of the apostles.  He asserts of himself and his contemporaries, that they were able to reckon up, in all the principal churches, the succession of bishops from the first. (Adv.  Haeres. 1. iii. c. 3.) I remark these particulars concerning Irenaeus with more formality than usual, because the testimony which this writer affords to the historical books of the New Testament, to their authority, and to the titles which they bear, is express, positive, and