done and taught, the writings, of which we are speaking, were admitted as sacred and divine; so, at the same time, for want of that conformity, were other writings, under the names also of Gospels and Epistles, which then appeared, rejected, as spurious and unworthy of belief.—The progress, however, of these researches was, in some instances, slow and deliberate.
CENT. III.
ORIGEN, G. C.--He reckons twenty-two books in the Old Testament, “ beside which are those of the Maccabees." Then speaking of the New, he says: “ The Gospels are but four, as I have received from tradition, which alone are admitted, without controversy, in the universal Church of God.”—St. Paul, he observes, wrote not to all the Churches which he had instructed, while Peter, he adds, “ on whom was built the Church of Christ, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail, left but one Epistle, which is received by all.” The second, however, he says, may be admitted as genuine, though some doubt it. He mentions the book of Revelations, as ascribed to St. John, but seems rather to hesitate about the three Epistles, now acknowledged to be the genuine work of the same Apostle.— Of James and Jude he is silent; and then treats of the Epistle to the Hebrews; which, from the elegance of its style and composition, he thinks, may not have been written by St. Paul: “
My opinion is that the thoughts are his; but that the diction and composition are from some other person, who was willing to record what he had heard from the Apostle. If any Church, therefore, receive it as his, it will be praiseworthy; for our forefathers, did not from light motives, deliver it to us as the
