“With the exception of the epistles of Jude, 2 Peter and 2, 3 John, with which no coincidences occur, and 1, 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Titus, and Philemon, with which the coincidences are very questionable, all the other epistles were clearly known, and used by them; but still they are not quoted with the formulas which preface citations from the Old Testament (The Scripture saith, It is written, &c.), nor is the famous phrase of Ignatius (To the Philadelphians 5:  Betaking myself to the gospel, as to the flesh of Christ, and to the apostles, as the eldership of the church) sufficient to prove the existence of a collection of apostolic records as distinct from the sum of apostolic teaching.  The coincidences with the gospels on the other hand are numerous and interesting, but such as cannot be referred to the exclusive use of our present written gospels.”  Westcott, in Smith’s Bible Dict.; Art.  Canon.  The reason of this, as the writer goes on to show, was that “the details of the life of Christ were still too fresh to be sought for only in written records.”  There is, however, one remarkable passage in the epistle of Barnabas, the Greek text of which has been recently discovered appended to the Sinaitic manuscript, in which he says (ch. 4):  “Let us take care that we be not found as it is written, many are called, but few are chosen.”  This formula, “as it is written,” distinguishes the gospel from which it is quoted as a part of the inspired word; for it is the customary formula employed by Christ and his apostles in accordance with the usage of their age, when they appeal to the Old Testament as of divine authority; and is never applied to writings of mere human authority.

5.  Next in order comes what may be called the period of transition between the age of the apostolic and that of the early church fathers.  The most distinguished writer of this period is Justin Martyr.  It is now generally conceded that the “Memoirs” of which he so often speaks were our canonical gospels.  Chap. 2, No. 7.  Besides the abundant use of these he mentions the Apocalypse by name, and ascribes it expressly to the apostle John—­“a certain man among us named John, one of the apostles of Christ, prophesied, in the revelation given him, that those who have believed in our Christ will spend a thousand years in Jerusalem,” etc.  Dialogue with Trypho, chap. 81.  He has also some apparent allusions to the Pauline epistles, but how far he possessed and used a collection of the New Testament writings, we have no means of judging.  Towards the middle of the second century, however, events occurred which had a powerful influence, not indeed, for establishing the authority of the apostolic writings (since that existed from the beginning), but for bringing home to the consciousness of the churches their supreme importance as an authoritative rule of faith and practice, and also the necessity of carefully defining their extent as