[457:3] "On opening the New Testament and comparing the impression produced by the Gospel of Matthew or Mark with that by the Gospel of John, the observant eye is at once struck with as salient a contrast as that already indicated on turning from the Macbeth or Othello of Shakespeare to the Comus of Milton or to Spenser's Faerie Queene." (Francis Tiffany.)
"To learn how far we may trust them (the Gospels) we must in the first place compare them with each other. The moment we do so we notice that the fourth stands quite alone, while the first three form a single group, not only following the same general course, but sometimes even showing a verbal agreement which cannot possibly be accidental." (The Bible for Learners, vol. ii. p. 27.)
[458:1] "Irenæus is the first person who mentions the four Gospels by name." (Bunsen: Keys of St. Peter, p. 328.)
"Irenæus, in the second century, is the first of the fathers who, though he has nowhere given us a professed catalogue of the books of the New Testament, intimates that he had received four Gospels, as authentic Scriptures, the authors of which he describes." (Rev. R. Taylor: Syntagma, p. 109.)
"The authorship of the fourth Gospel has been the subject of much learned and anxious controversy among theologians. The earliest, and only very important external testimony we have is that of Irenæus (A. D. 179.)" (W. R. Grey: The Creed of Christendom, p. 159.)
[458:2] Against Heresies, bk. ii. ch. xi. sec. 1.
[459:1] Against Heresies, bk. iii. ch. xi. sec. 8.
[459:2] Mosheim: vol. i. p. 109.
[459:3] Middleton's Works, vol. i. p. 59.
[460:1] Genuine Epist. Apost. Fathers, p. 98.