ignores the canonical Gospels, offers no evidence for their existence, but proves that he did not recognise any such works as of authority." I remark, the question is not their authority, but, Did they exist? Basilides wrote a book, called it a Gospel, or commentary of the Gospel, and made as much use as suited his heretical purpose of the canonical records, of tradition, and of other books. This seems to be what we can arrive at. Hippolytus, writing of the Basilideans and describing their doctrines, uses the singular pronoun "he"--"he says," in a passage of which our author gives an unintelligible translation. This pronoun is an inconvenient witness. Our author wants it to be "they," in order that the disciples of Basilides living at a later period, when the Gospels were generally recognised, may be meant, and not Basilides, who lived A.D. 125. Hippolytus has a sentence of Basilides, which our author translates as follows:--"Jesus, however, was generated according to _these_, as we have already said. But when the generation which has already been declared had taken place, all things regarding the Saviour, according to _them_, occurred in a similar way as they have been written in the Gospel." This means that the things referring to the Incarnation were as _written_ in the Gospel, not as preached, but as written; and if Basilides, as the founder of the sect, is referred to, the statement testifies to the existence of the Gospels in the year 125, and the doctrine of the Incarnation being in them. But our author says the statement is not made in connection with Basilides, but his followers; that it is made about A.D. 225, by Hippolytus, and affords no proof that either Basilides or his followers used the Gospels or admitted their authority. "The exclusive use, by any one, of the Gospel according to the Hebrews, for instance, would be perfectly consistent with the statement" (p. 48). "No one who considers what is known of that Gospel, or who thinks of the use made of it in the first half of the second century by perfectly orthodox Fathers, before we hear anything of our Gospels, can doubt this" (p. 48). I remark, that those who adopt Tischendorf's view, that Matthew was written in Greek, and a corrupted version in Hebrew, used in certain countries, will not have to resort to any such explanation as our author suggests. His examination in detail of the several quotations is important, because it exhibits his want of appreciation of the evidence they afford. The first passage Tischendorf points out is found in the "Stromata" of Clement of Alexandria, and it is certainly from our Gospel of Matthew,[39] however that work may have been compiled (for it is not necessary to insist that no other records than Matthew's own are included in the book which, we contend, was at very early date read in the Churches, and is what we now have). "They say the Lord answered, All men cannot receive this saying. For there are eunuchs who are