The variations in these passages, it may be argued, are not very important. Certainly, if they were the exceptional variations amongst a mass of quotations perfectly agreeing with parallels in our Gospels, it might be exaggeration to base upon such divergences a conclusion that they were derived from a different source. When it is considered, however, that the very reverse is the case, and that these are passages selected for their closer agreement out of a multitude of others either more decidedly differing from our Gospels or not found in them at all, the case entirely changes, and variations being the rule instead of the exception, these, however slight, become evidence of the use of a Gospel different from ours. As an illustration of the importance of slight variations in connection with the question as to the source from which quotations are derived, the following may at random be pointed out. The passage "See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest" [------] occurring in a work like the Homilies would, supposing our second Gospel no longer extant, be referred to Matt viii. 4, with which it entirely agrees with the exception of its containing the one extra word [------]. It is however actually taken from Mark i. 44, and not from the first Gospel. Then again, supposing that our first Gospel had shared the fate of so many others of the [------] of Luke, and in some early work the following passage were found: "A prophet is not without honour except in his own country {18} and in his own house" [------]t this passage would undoubtedly be claimed by apologists as a quotation from Mark vi. 4, and as proving the existence and use of that Gospel. The omission of the words "and among his own kin" [------] would at first be explained as mere abbreviation, or defect of memory, but on the discovery that part or all of these words are omitted from some MSS., that for instance the phrase is erased from the oldest manuscript known, the Cod. Sinaiticus, the derivation from the second Gospel would be considered as established. The author notwithstanding might never have seen that Gospel, for the quotation is taken from Matt. xiii. 57.(2) We have already quoted the opinion of De Wette as to the inconclusive nature of the deductions to be drawn from the quotations in the pseudo-Clementine writings regarding their source, but in pursuance of the plan we have adopted we shall now examine the passages which he cites as most nearly agreeing with our Gospels.(3) The first of these occurs in Hom. iii. 18: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit upon Moses' seat; all things therefore, whatsoever they speak to you, hear them," which is compared with Matt, xxiii. 2, 3: "The Scribes and the Pharisees sit upon Moses' seat; all things therefore, whatsoever they say to you, do and observe." We subjoin the Greek of the latter half of these passages. {19}