But besides this _public_ tradition, extant throughout all the Churches, there is another kind of tradition he brings forward, viz. that kept up by a direct line from the Apostles by the testimony of individuals. This he brings forward under various forms of expression, as “I have heard from an elder, who had heard from those who had seen and been instructed by the Apostles;” “Wherefore the elders, who are disciples of the Apostles, say,” &c.; “As the elders, who saw John, the Lord’s disciple, remember that they heard of him;” “And all the elders, who associated with John, the Lord’s disciple, testify that John taught them this; for he remained with them down to the time of Trajan.” He appeals to it on the subject of Christ’s descent into hell(358), which did not enter into the earliest creeds; on the place of the saints departed(359); on the millennium(360); as well as on the fact that Jesus continued his teaching till past forty years of age(361). It is evident that such testimony, carried down in one chain, unchecked by any other similar chain, must be liable to great deterioration. An instance of this may be seen in the last‐mentioned case in which he quotes this kind of evidence; viz. his idea that Jesus continued his teaching till past forty years of age(362). All other writers who speak on the subject are agreed that Irenæus, or some person through whom this assertion came, must have made some mistake; that our Lord, in fact, began his teaching shortly after his baptism, and continued it through three passovers, and no more. And yet we have apparently very strong evidence for the assertion of Irenæus; for he declares that all the elders who companied with John the Apostle affirmed it, and that some of them declared that they had it from other Apostles. The probability is, that Irenæus, who was quite a youth when acquainted with these persons, had misunderstood what he had heard in their conversations with each other, or remembered it incorrectly after a long lapse of years, being biassed by his own view of a passage of Scripture which he quotes in confirmation(363), and which may be the real foundation of the opinion in question. It is likewise evident that this tradition in regard to mere facts not connected with any important doctrine, and depending upon the correctness of the _memory_ of an individual, is of very different character from that of important facts and doctrines, and points of discipline, kept up publicly in all Christian Churches and _witnessed_ to by him as actually subsisting in his own day or at the very time of his writing. At the same time they may be received, as we receive other historical facts, when not contradicted by other evidence.