The
illustration of this remark leads him to bring together long quotations
from each of the evangelists: and the whole passage is a proof that
Eusebius, and the Christians of those days, not only read the Gospels,
but studied them with attention and exactness. In a passage of his
ecclesiastical History, he treats, in form, and at large, of the
occasions of writing the four Gospels, and of the order in which they
were written. The title of the chapter is, "Of the Order of the
Gospels;" and it begins thus: "Let us observe the writings of this
apostle John, which are not contradicted by any: and, first of all, must
be mentioned, as acknowledged by all, the Gospel according to him,
well-known to all the churches under heaven; and that it has been justly
placed by the ancients the fourth in order, and after the other three,
may be made evident in this manner."--Eusebius then proceeds to show
that John wrote the last of the four, and that his Gospel was intended
to supply the omissions of the others; especially in the part of our
Lord's ministry which took place before the imprisonment of John the
Baptist.
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