The Lost Gospel and Its Contents - Michael F. Sadler (books to read for 12 year olds .txt) 📗

all the rest of her life in widowhood till she saw the
Saviour." (i. 8, 4.)

"The production, again, of the Duodecad of the aeons is indicated by
the fact that the Lord was twelve years of age when He disputed with
the teachers of the law," &c. (i. 3, 2.)

"Some passages, also, which occur in the Gospels receive from them a
colouring of the same kind, as the answer which He gave His mother
when He was twelve years old, 'Wist ye not that I must be about My
Father's business?'" (i. 20, 2.)

Luke, iii.

"For because He knew that we should make a good use of our substance
which we should possess by receiving it from another, He says, 'He
that hath two coats let him impart to him that hath none, and he
that hath meat let him do likewise.'" (iv. 30, 3.)

"For when He came to be baptized He had not yet completed His
thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age;
for thus Luke, who has mentioned His years, has expressed it." (ii.
22, 5.)

John, i.

"[John] thus commenced his teaching in the Gospel, 'In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,'" &c.
(iii. 11, 1.)

"He (St. John) expresses himself thus: 'In the beginning was the
Word,'" &c. (i. 8, 5.)

"Thus saith the Scripture, 'By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made,' &c. And again, 'All things were made by Him, and without Him
was nothing made that was made.'" (i. 22, 1.)

"For he styles Him 'A light which shineth in darkness, and which was
not comprehended by it.'" (i. 8, 5.)

"And that we may not have to ask 'Of what God was the Word made
flesh?' He does Himself previously teach us, saying, 'There was a
man sent from God whose name was John. The same came as a witness
that he might bear witness of that Light. He was not that Light, but
that he might testify of the Light.'" (iii. 11, 4.)

"While the Gospel affirms plainly that by the Word, which was in the
beginning with God, all things were made, which Word, he says, was
made flesh and dwelt among us." (iii. 11, 2.)

To John i. 14, "The Word was made flesh," the references are absolutely innumerable. Those I have given already will suffice.

"For this is the knowledge of salvation which was wanting to them,
that of the Son of God, which John made known, saying, 'Behold the
Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world. This is He of
whom I said, After me cometh a Man Who was made before me, because
He was prior to me.'" (iii. 10, 2.)

"By whom also Nathaniel, being taught, recognized Him; he to whom
also the Lord bare witness that he was an Israelite indeed, in whom
was no guile. The Israelite recognized his King, therefore did he
cry out to Him, 'Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King
of Israel.'" (iii. 11, 6.)

John, ii.

"But that wine was better which the Word made from water, on the
moment, and simply for the use of those who had been called to the
marriage." (iii. 11, 5.)

"As also the Lord speaks in reference to Himself, 'Destroy this
temple, and in three days I will raise it up.' He spake this,
however, it is said, of the temple of His body." (v. 6, 2.)


CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA.

Matthew, i.

"And in the gospel according to Matthew the genealogy which begins
with Abraham is continued down to Mary, the mother of the Lord.
'For,' it is said, 'from Abraham to David are fourteen generations,
and from David to the carrying away into Babylon," &c.
(Miscellanies, i. 21.)

Matthew, iii.

"For the fan is in the Lord's hand, by which the chaff due to the
fire is separated from the wheat." (Instructor, i. 9.)

Matthew, iv.

"Therefore He Himself, urging them on to salvation, cries, 'The
Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.'" (Exhortation to Heathen, ch. ix.)

Matthew, v.

"And because He brought all things to bear on the discipline of the
soul, He said, 'Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth.'" (Miscellanies, iv. 6.)

Mark, i.

"For he also 'ate locusts and wild honey.'" [In St. Matthew the
corresponding expression being 'His food was locusts and wild
honey.'] (Instructor, ii. 11.)

Luke, iii.

"And to prove that this is true it is written in the Gospel by Luke
as follows: 'And in the fifteenth year, in the reign of Tiberius
Caesar, the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zacharias.'
And again, Jesus was coming to His baptism, being about thirty years
old,' and so on." (Miscellanies, i. 21.)

There are at least twenty more references to the accounts of the preaching of St. John in the third of St. Matthew, first of St. Mark, and third of St. Luke, in Clement's writings, which I have not given simply because it is difficult to assign the quotation to a particular Evangelist, as the account is substantially the same in the three.

Luke xii. 16-20.

"Of this man's field (the rich fool) the Lord, in the Gospel, says
that it was fertile, and afterwards, when he wished to lay by his
fruits and was about to build greater barns," &c. (Miscellanies,
iii. 6.)

Luke xiii. 32.

"Thus also in reference to Herod, 'Go tell that fox, Behold, I cast
out devils,'" &c. (Miscellanies, iv. 6.)

Luke xiv. 12, 13.

"He says accordingly, somewhere, 'When thou art called to a wedding
recline not on the highest couch.' ... And elsewhere, 'When thou
makest a dinner or a supper,' and again, 'But, when thou makest an
entertainment, call the poor.'" (Instructor, ii. 1.)

Luke, xv. Parable of Prodigal Son.

"For it were not seemly that we, after the fashion of the rich man's
son in the Gospel, should, as prodigals, abuse the Father's gifts."
(Instructor, ii. ch. i.)

John, i.

"You have then God's promise; you have His love: become partakers of
His grace. And do not suppose the song of salvation to be new, as a
vessel or a house is new; for ... in the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God." (Exhortation to
Heathen, ch. i.)

"For He has said, 'In the beginning the Word was in God, and the
Word was God." (Instructor, viii.)

"Wherefore it (the law) was only temporary; but eternal grace and
truth were by Jesus Christ. Mark the expressions of Scripture; of
the law only is it is said 'was given;' but truth, being the grace
of the Father, is the eternal work of the Word, and it is not said
to be given , but to be by Jesus, without whom nothing was ."
(Instructor, i. 7.)

"The divine Instructor is trustworthy, adorned as He is with three
of the fairest ornaments ... with authority of utterance, for He is
God and Creator; for all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made: and with benevolence, for He alone gave
Himself a sacrifice for us, 'For the Good Shepherd giveth His life
for the sheep.'" (John x. 11.) (Instructor, i. 11.)

"For the darkness, it is said, comprehendeth it not." (Instructor,
ii. 10.)

"Having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore
'have received power to become the sons of God.'" (Miscellanies, iv.
6.)

"For of the prophets it is said, 'We have all received of His
fulness,' that is, of Christ's." (Miscellanies, i. 17.)

"And John the apostle says, 'No man hath seen God at any time. The
only begotten God,' [oldest reading,] 'who is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him." (Miscellanies, v. 12.) John, iii.

"He that believeth not is, according to the utterance of the
Saviour, condemned already." (Miscellanies, iv. 16.)

"Enslaved as you are to evil custom, and clinging to it voluntarily
till your last breath, you are hurried to destruction; because light
has come into the world, and men have loved the darkness rather than
the light." (Exhortation to Heathen, 10.)

"'I must decrease,' said the prophet John." (Miscellanies, vi. II.)


TERTULLIAN.

Matthew, i.

"There is, first of all, Matthew, that most faithful chronicler of
the Gospel, because the companion of the Lord; for no other reason
in the world than to show us clearly the fleshy original of Christ,
he thus begins, 'The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son