NOTE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION.
IN revising this Edition for the press I have had the invaluable assistance of the Rev. Dr Stanton, Ely Professor of Divinity, Cambridge. Without such help I should not have ventured to re-issue the book, for I find it impossible under the stress of other work to study with care the new literature which deals with the Canon of the New Testament. As it is, I trust that no im- portant facts which have come to light since the last edition was published have been left unnoticed.
In examining once more a book which was first published more than forty years ago it is natural to review summarily the additional evidence upon the sub- ject which has been brought to light by the discovery of fresh documents since the inquiry was undertaken.
When the Essay was beginning to take shape the Philosophumena, now attributed by common consent to Hippolytus, was published under the name of Origen (1851). The treatise poured a flood of light on the use of the ' acknowledged ' books of the New Testament by early heretics, and in particular established, as I believe, beyond reasonable doubt the fact that Basilides made use of the Gospel of St John.
Not long afterwards (1853) the complete text of the
