Mare iv:21, by describing the whole Bible as Whim instrument:cm ulriucque Testa mcnif (Adv. Prax. chap. 2.0), and by distinguish ing between the 'Scripture Vetus and the 'No vum Testamentum' (ibid. c. 13). Irenteus re peatedly calls the writings of the New Testa ment, 'the Holy Scriptures,' the Oracles of God' (Adz'. ii:27; i :8, etc.), and in one place he puts the Evangelical and Apostolic writings on a par with the Law and the Prophets (ibid. i:3. sec. 6). From these allusions we may justly infer that before the middle of the third century the New Testament Scriptures were generally known by the Christians in a collected form, and reverenced as the word of God. That the books they received were the same as those now pos sessed by us, is evident from the quotations from them furnished by the early fathers, and which have been so carefully collected by the learned and laborious Lardner, in his Credibility of the Gospel History. The same thing appears from the researches of Origen and EIF.ebius. Besides these sources of information we have no fewer than ten ancient catalogues of the New Testa ment books still extant. Of these, six accord exactly with our present Canon, while of the rest three omit only the Apocalypse, and one omits, with this, the Epistle to the Hebrews (Lardner's Ii'orks, vol. iv and v, 8vo; I lorne's introduction, vol. i, p. 70, 8th edition).
(12) Internal Evidence. With the external evidence thus furnished in favor of the sacred Canon, the internal accords. In the 01(1 a men t all is in keeping with the assumption that its books were written by Jews, sustaining the character, surrounded by the circumstances, and living at the time ascribed to their authors; or if any apparent discrepaucics have been found in any of them, they are of such a kind as fur ther inquiry has served to explain and reconcile.
11 he literary peculiarities of the New Testament, its language, its idioms, its style, its allusions, all are accordant with the hypothesis that its authors were exactly what they profess to have been—Jews converted to Christianity, and living at the commencement of the Christian era. Of both Testaments the theological and ethical sys tems are substantially in harmony, whilst all that they contain tends to one grand result—the mani festation of the power and perfection of Deity, and the restoration of man to the image. service and love of his Creator. The conclusion from the whole facts of the case can he none other than that the Bible is entitled to that implicit and un divided reverence which it demands, as the only divinely appointed Conon of religious truth and duty.
The criticism of the present century upon the authenticity of the separate books of the Old and New Testaments belongs to the special articles on these books.
Literature. Besides the immortal work of Lardner and the different introductions to the critico-historical study of Scripture, the follow ing works may with advantage be consulted on the subject of the Canon:— Cosin's Scholostical His tory of the Conon, 4to. London. 1657. 1672. West colt, The Bible in the Church, London, 1864; and History of the Canon of the N. T., London, t866; Hilgenfeld, Der Karon und die Kritik des N. T., Halle, 1863; How the English Bible Has Come Down to Us, Thompson, Chas. Scribner's Sons, I goo.