20G HORiE PAULlNiE. 



Aro-uitio' ill like manner from citations and allusions, we 

 have, within the space of a hundred and fifty years from 

 the time that the first of St. Paul's epistles was written, 

 proofs of almost all of them being read in Palestine, Syria, 

 the countries of Asia Minor, in Egypt, in that part of Africa 

 which used the Latin tongue, in Greece, Italy, and Gaul* 

 I do not mean simply to assert, that within the space of a 

 hundred and fifty years St. Paul's epistles were read in those 

 countries, for I believe that they were read and circulated 

 from the beginning ; but that proofs of their being so read 

 occur within that period. And when it is considered how 

 few of the primitive Christians wrote, and of what was 

 written how much is lost, we are to account it extraordi- 

 narv, or rather as a sure proof of the extensiveness of th« 

 reputation of these writings, and of the general respect in 

 which they were held, that so many testimonies, and of such 

 antiquity, are still extant. "In the remaining works of 

 Irengeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian, there are 

 perhaps more and larger quotations of the small volume ot 

 the New Testament, than of all the works of Cicero in the 

 writings of all characters for several ages."t We must add, 

 that the epistles of Paul come in for their full share of this 

 observation; and that all the thirteen epistles, except that 

 to Philemon, which is not quoted by Irenseus or Clemeat, 

 and which probably escaped notice merely by its brevity, 

 are severally cited, and expressly recognized as St. Paul's by 

 each of these Christian writers. The Ebionites, an early, 

 though inconsiderable Christian sect, rejected St. Paul and 

 his epistles ;$ that is, they rejected these epistles not be- 

 cause they were not, but because they were St. Paul's ; and 

 because, adhering to the obligation of the Jewish law, they 

 chose to dispute his doctrine and authority. Their suilrage 

 as to the genuineness of the epistles does not contradict thai 

 of othar Christians. Marcion, a heretical writer in the fbr- 



* See Lardner's EecapitulsLtion, vol. 12, p. 53. t Ibid. 



X Lardner, vol. 2, p. 808. 



