ask, could such a Gospel have perished utterly? A Gospel, which, besides
containing records of the historical and supernatural much fuller than
any one of the surviving Gospels, contained also a sort of Sermon on the
Mount, amalgamating in one whole the moral teaching of our Lord, ought
surely (if it ever was in existence) to have won its place in the canon.




SECTION VIII.

THE PRINCIPAL WITNESS.--HIS TESTIMONY TO ST. JOHN.


We have now to consider the citations (or supposed citations) of Justin
from the fourth Gospel. These, as I have mentioned, are treated by the
author of "Supernatural Religion" separately at the conclusion of his
work.

Whatever internal coincidences there are between the contents of
St. John and those of the Synoptics, the external differences are
exceedingly striking, and it is not at all to my present purpose to keep
this fact out of sight. The plan of St. John's Gospel is different, the
style is different, the subjects of the discourses, the scene of action,
the incidents, and (with one exception) the miracles, all are different.

Now this will greatly facilitate the investigation of the question as to
whether any author had St. John before him when he wrote. There may be
some uncertainty with respect to the quotations from the Synoptics, as
to whether an early writer quotes one or other, or derives what he cites