grounds on which this reception rested, more especially in the
case of the gospel of John. Tischendorf, after mentioning the
relation of Irenæus to Polycarp the disciple of John, asks, with
reason: "Are we, nevertheless, to cherish the supposition that
Irenæus never heard a word from Polycarp respecting the gospel
of John, and yet gave it his unconditional confidence--this man
Irenæus, who in his controversies with heretics, the men of
falsification and apocryphal works, employs against them, before
all other things, the pure Scripture as a holy weapon?" (Essay,
When were Our Gospels Written, p. 8.) The testimony of Irenæus
is justly regarded as of the most weighty character. The fact
that he gives several fanciful reasons why there should be only
four gospels, (Against Heresies, 3. 11,) does not invalidate his
statement of the fact that the churches had always received
four, and no more. We always distinguish between men's testimony
to facts of which they are competent witnesses, and their
philosophical explanations of these facts.

_Tertullian_ was born in Carthage about A.D. 160, and died
between A.D. 220 and 240. About A.D. 202 he joined the sect of
the Montanists; but this does not affect his testimony
respecting the origin and universal reception of the four
canonical gospels. His works are very numerous, and in them all
he insists with great earnestness that the gospel narratives, as
also the other apostolic writings, have been received without
corruption, as a sacred inheritance, from the apostolic
churches. His work against Marcion, whom he accuses of employing
a mutilated gospel of Luke, is particularly instructive as
showing how deep and settled was the conviction of the early
Christians that nothing could be a gospel which did not proceed