Having completed our inquiry into the genuineness of the New Testament books, we now restate the conclusions to which it has conducted us.

1. By the evidence of manuscript copies yet in existence, we have traced all the books to the first half of the fourth century.

2. By the evidence of catalogues we have traced them all to the second half of the second century.

3. By the evidence of translations we have traced all the books except the Second Epistle of Peter to the first half of the second century.

These three conclusions are derived from evidence so indisputable that in regard to them there is no controversy. See page 127.

4. By the evidence of quotations we have traced all the books to the age of the Apostles, with the exception of Philemon, .fames, Second and Third John, Jude, and possibly Second Peter. These last we have traced by the same evidence so near to the Apostles as to render their spuriousness in the highest degree improbable, and we have found that the absence of quotations from them at the very earliest period this side of the Apostles, is no evidence against their genuineness. See page 110.

5. Should we be compelled, for want of evidence, to set aside the six Epistles last mentioned as not genuine, and thus to reject them from the New Testament, the result would not in the slightest degree affect the genuineness of the other books, and the loss to the New Testament would be, not all the contents of these books, but only that portion of their contents not found in a different form in other books. The loss as respects matters of faith and practice would be inconsiderable.

6. By internal evidence we have traced every book to its reputed date and its reputed author; and we have1 found that for four out of the six whose external evidence is comparatively weak, that is, for Philemon, James, Second Peter and hide, the internal evidence is positive and explicit.

This last conclusion is supported by evidence so forcible that it is conceded by the most radical of the rationalistic writers as regards four of the most important Epistles (page 127); and although in reference to the others it is denied, the grounds of the denial have been found to be totally insufficient to support even a rational doubt, and to consist mainly in foregone conclusions derived from theories unsupported by facts.

That all of these books were written by the authors whom they claim for themselves, so far as such a claim is made; and that the others were written by the authors to whom they have been ascribed by believers in the ages past, is the final and only conclusion which the evidence seems to justify.