our present Gospel of Saint Matthew, in which this text is twice found, (Matt xx. 16; xxii. 14.) and is found in no other book now known.  There is a further observation to be made upon the terms of the quotation.  The writer of the epistle was a Jew.  The phrase “it is written” was the very form in which the Jews quoted their Scriptures.  It is not probable, therefore, that he would have used this phrase, and without qualification, of any book but what had acquired a kind of Scriptural authority.  If the passage remarked in this ancient writing had been found in one of Saint Paul’s Epistles, it would have been esteemed by every one a high testimony to Saint Matthew’s Gospel.  It ought, therefore, to be remembered, that the writing in which it is found was probably by very few years posterior to those of Saint Paul.

Beside this passage, there are also in the epistle before us several others, in which the sentiment is the same with what we meet with in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and two or three in which we recognize the same words.  In particular, the author of the epistle repeats the precept, “Give to every one that asketh thee;” (Matt. v. 42.) and saith that Christ chose as his apostles, who were to preach the Gospel, men who were great sinners, that he might show that he came “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Matt.  Ix. 13.)

II.  We are in possession of an epistle written by Clement, bishop of Rome, (Lardner, Cred. vol. p. 62, et seq.) whom ancient writers, without any doubt or scruple, assert to have been the Clement whom Saint Paul mentions, Phil. iv. 3; “with Clement also, and other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book of life.”  This epistle is spoken of by the ancients as an epistle acknowledged by all; and, as Irenaeus well represents its value, “written by Clement, who had seen the blessed apostles, and conversed with them; who had the preaching of the apostles still sounding in his ears, and their traditions before his eyes.”  It is addressed to the church of Corinth; and what alone may seem almost decisive of its authenticity, Dionysius, bishop of Corinth, about the year 170, i. e. about eighty or ninety years after the epistle was written, bears witness, “that it had been wont to be read in that church from ancient times.”

This epistle affords, amongst others, the following valuable passages:—­“Especially remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, which he spake teaching gentleness and long-suffering:  for thus he said:* Be ye merciful, that ye may obtain mercy; forgive, that it my be forgiven unto you; as you do, so shall it be done unto you; as you give, so shall it be given unto you; as ye judge, so shall ye be judged; as ye show kindness, so shall kindness be shown unto you; with what measure ye mete, with the same shall it be measured to you.  By this command, and by these rules, let us establish ourselves, that we may always walk obediently to his holy words.”