other books as far as possible in the order in which they were written, and we shall find an obvious advantage in so doing. No inconvenience will, however, result from our speaking first of the four Gospels, both because they record the life of Christ, which was the beginning of the good tidings and of the New Covenant, and because some records more or less similar to them must have existed in an oral form for many years before they were reduced to writing by the four Evangelists. Let us first of