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Paley, William, 1743-1805

"Evidence of Christianity"

" This is an important
attestation, from good authority, and of high antiquity. It is generally
understood that by the word "Lord," Hegesippus intended some writing or
writings, containing the teaching of Christ; in which sense alone the
term combines with the other term "Law and Prophets," which denote
writings; and together with them admit of the verb "teacheth" in the
present tense. Then, that these writings were some or all of the books
of the New Testament, is rendered probable from hence, that in the
fragments of his works, which are preserved in Eusebius, and in a writer
of the ninth century, enough, though it be little, is left to show, that
Hegesippus expressed divers thing in the style of the Gospels, and of
the Acts of the Apostles; that he referred to the history in the second
chapter of Matthew, and recited a text of that Gospel as spoken by our
Lord.
IX. At this time, viz. about the year 170, the churches of Lyons and
Vienne, in France, sent a relation of the sufferings of their martyrs to
the churches of Asia and Phrygia. (Lardner, Cred. vol. i. p. 332.) The
epistle is preserved entire by Eusebius.


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